Category Archives: Movies

Movie Review: Quartet

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

At age seventy-five, Dustin Hoffman has made an outstanding directorial debut with this gentle comedy about aging musicians living at Beecham House, a British retirement house. The film is based on Italy’s Casa di Riposo per Musicisti, first chronicled in the 1984 documentary Tosca’s Kiss.

The musical seniors are rehearsing for the annual gala fundraising concert. When legendary diva Jean Horton (Maggie Smith) arrives, she creates a stir and receives a standing ovation from the other residents.

But not everyone is pleased to see her.

Reggie Paget (Tom Courtenay) still holds a grudge against his ex-wife and fellow member of a London operatic dream team. Two other members of the team, Wilf Bond (Billy Connolly) and Cissie Robson (Pauline Collins), also live at Beecham and hope to persuade Jean to join them and wow the audience with their famous quartet from Rigoletto.

The supporting actors include actual retired stars, among them opera singer Gwyneth Jones and jazz pianist Jack Honeyborne.

Hoffman has provided the perfect backdrop for creative people who refuse to slow down, despite their aging bodies and minds.

Simply delightful from start to finish.



Movie Review: Lincoln

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

It is not surprising that Daniel Day-Lewis won the Golden Globe and SAG awards for best actor. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if he also won an Oscar for his outstanding portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. He doesn’t just look like Lincoln; he immerses himself and becomes Lincoln. He dominates every scene of the film, displaying the many aspects of the former president’s character. While the folksy storytelling provides the humor, the cagey politicking demonstrates a different aspect of the former president, one not usually portrayed in films.

Director Steven Spielberg confined the main story to a one-month period: January 1865, the beginning of Lincoln’s second term. He wants the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, passed in the House of Representatives, and he wants it passed right away. An ambitious plan, Lincoln refuses to be deterred by advisors who deem it impossible given the current makeup of the house.

Most of the scenes in the movie involve politicians sitting or standing in rooms while arguing. While some of these scenes were necessary to demonstrate the process, I felt there were too many of them. I would have preferred more scenes of Lincoln with his wife (Sally Field) and oldest son (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

The stellar cast also included Tommy Lee Jones as visionary Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. Another Oscar-worthy performance. In her supporting role, Sally Field delivered an outstanding performance as the volatile Mary Todd Lincoln.

Movie Review: Silver Linings Playbook

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Silver Linings Playbook is a different kind of romantic comedy. While addressing the challenges faced by those diagnosed with the bipolar disorder, the film succeeds in treating a very serious subject with humor.

When the film opens, Pat Solitano Jr. (Bradley Cooper) is standing in the corner of his room in a Baltimore mental hospital, talking to himself. His mother (Jacki Weaver) shows up to sign him out, against doctors’ orders and without having consulted her husband (Robert DeNiro).

Thrown in the middle of Pat’s chaotic life, many questions come to mind: Why was Pat locked up for eight months? Why have his wife and former school obtained restraining orders against him? Why is Pat Sr. so obsessed with the Philadelphia Eagles football team?

My first impulse was to agree with the doctors. Pat Jr. refuses to take his medication, over-reacts to a song and demonstrates poor impulse control. After flinging a copy of A Farewell to Arms though a closed window at four o’clock in the morning, he awakens his parents with a maniacal rant against Ernest Hemingway. At a diner, he orders Raisin Bran so his female companion won’t think it’s a date.

Sparks fly when he meets Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a grieving widow facing her own demons. Tiffany assumes he will be another sexual conquest, while Pat Jr. wishes only to reconnect with his wife. After agreeing to a deal with Tiffany, the two damaged souls learn to dance together in preparation for a ballroom competition.

I was most impressed by Jennifer Lawrence’s performance. It is not surprising that she won a Golden Globe and she is definitely a contender for an Oscar. Also nominated for both awards, Bradley Cooper captures the intensity and physicality of the bipolar Pat Jr. Robert DeNiro nails the character of a failing bookie with anger management problems and an intense OCD relationship with the Philadelphia Eagles.

A must-see film that is worthy of all the Golden Globe and Oscar nominations it has received.

Movie Review: Arbitrage

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Charismatic shark. Urban predator. Self-serving Wall Street bastard.

I was intrigued by the descriptions of New York hedge fund magnate Robert Miller (Richard Gere) that appeared in different reviews of Arbitrage. After watching the film, I agreed with all of them.

The morally bankrupt financier conducts his business and personal affairs with cool deliberation. When the film opens, Miller is rushing home to celebrate his 60th birthday at a family dinner. As he reigns over the table, he tosses out praise and promises, but his thoughts are elsewhere. Several hours later, he meets up with his mistress, French gallery owner Julie, who demands more of a commitment from him.

To appease Julie, Miller invites her to drive with him to his family’s weekend home. On the way, he falls asleep at the wheel and crashes the car, leaving the woman dead. Miller appears visibly upset, but we quickly learn that he is more concerned about how this mishap will affect his latest financial deal.

Having illegally borrowed more than $400 million to cover up a gaping hole in his company’s financial records, Miller awaits a federal audit and the decision of a tycoon (Graydon Carter). He asks Jimmy Grant (Nate Parker), a young man who feels beholden to Miller, to help him cover his tracks after the accident. Everything appears to be working to plan until a detective (Tim Roth) starts sniffing around.

Richard Gere delivers an award-winning performance that has already been recognized by the Golden Globes.  Throughout the film, he maintains that unflappable air of a man who can easily negotiate killer deals, ruin lives and make charitable donations.

An excellent film made even more compelling by the ambiguous ending.

Movie Review: Les Misérables

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

Set against the backdrop of post-Revolution nineteenth-century France, Les Misérables is an epic musical featuring a set of A-list actors, among them Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried. Nominated for four Golden Globe awards, the musical is definitely a contender for just as many, if not more, Oscars.

The film centers on the life of Jean Valjean (Jackman), a man serving a nineteen-year sentence for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s child. After Valjean is granted parole, he is taken in by a kind bishop who supports and forgives him despite the former’s theft of valuable church items. As Valjean prospers, he still manages to attract problems and the renewed scrutiny of his former jailer (Crowe). Unable to save the persecuted prostitute Fantine (Hathaway), Valjean resolves to provide for her daughter Cosette, played by Isabelle Allen and later, Amanda Seyfried.

Director Tom Hooper’s decision to have the actors sing live on stage was an excellent one. So many wonderful and memorable numbers…

During the opening scene, the convicts sing “Look down, look down, you’ll always be a slave” while hauling a huge, battered ship into dry-dock under the watchful eye of Javert as he sings “Do not forget me, 24601” to Valjean.

Hathaway’s take on “I Dreamed a Dream” is one of the film’s show-stopping events.

The corrupt innkeepers played by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter provide comic relief in their rendition of “Master of the House.”

Later, their daughter Eponine (Samantha Parks) beautifully sings “On My Own” when she discovers that her love interest Marius (Eddie Redmayne) yearns for Cosette.

An excellent holiday film!



Movie Review: The Guilt Trip

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

A long-time fan of Barbra Streisand, I look forward to all her movies.

In her latest, The Guilt Trip, seventy-year-old Streisand plays a convincing fifty-something Joyce Brewster, the perpetually nagging mother of struggling inventor Andy (Seth Rogen).

After hearing his mother’s confession about a lost love, Andy impulsively invites her to accompany him on his cross-country sales trip. Throughout the trip, Joyce continues to smother and baby Andy as they deal with inclement weather, cheap hotels, a strip club, gambling at a Vegas casino, hitchhikers and a provocative book-on-disc. In between, Andy makes a series of awkward pitches to companies. My favorite scene involved Joyce scarfing down an enormous steak (size of a small poodle according to Andy) at a Texas eatery and attracting the attention of a handsome cowboy.

While I had hoped for more humor, I did enjoy Barbra Streisand’s performance in this short, 96-minute film. She still has that flair for comedic acting and she looks amazing, even in close-up.

Movie Review: Life of Pi

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

In Life of Pi, based on the Man Booker Prize winning novel by Yann Martel, a teenager and a Bengal tiger spend 227 days on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Like the book, the film is divided into three segments.

In the first segment, we are introduced to the central character, Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma). Growing up in Pondicherry, the French part of India, Pi enjoyed an idyllic life as the child of a zookeeper (Adil Hussain). An inquisitive and adventurous child, Pi dabbled in different faiths—Hinduism, Christianity, Islam—and played with the wild animals in his father’s zoo. Economic issues force the Patel family and their zoo animals to leave India and set sail for Canada. The Japanese freighter encounters rough seas and sinks near the Marinas Trench. The only survivors are Pi and four animals: a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan and a tiger.

During the second segment of the film, we watch as three of the animals are devoured by the tiger and Pi takes refuge in an improvised raft which is tethered to the lifeboat. To survive, Pi must forge an uneasy alliance with the Bengal tiger, aka Richard Parker. The special effects used to create Richard Parker are simply amazing. And director Ang Lee does not stop there. The scenes involving the flying fish and a whale exploding skyward from the ocean are equally impressive.

I found the film’s third segment anticlimactic. While Pi’s survival was never in question—he is the narrator of the film—there was no need to provide an “alternative” narrative from a hospital bed in Mexico. More film time could have been devoted to the Patel zoo, Pi’s budding romance in India or life in modern-day Canada.


Movie Review: Sparkle

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

I agree with USA Today reporter Claudia Puig’s review: “Sparkle is a fitting curtain call for Houston.”

It was one of the main reasons I decided to watch this film. A long-time fan of Whitney Houston, I was shocked and saddened by her death in February of this year. While she didn’t sing until near the end of the film, her voice and choice of lyrics—the gospel hymn, “His Eye is on the Sparrow”—was extremely moving.

Unfortunately, the rest of the film did not deliver.

A remake of the 1976 film starring Irene Cara, the film focuses on big-dreamer Sparkle (Jordin Sparks) and her two sisters (Carmen Ejogo and Tika Sempter). After Stix (Derek Luke) falls for Sparkle and her impressive song-writing talent, he persuades her to form an all-girl group with her sisters. Houston plays the part of Emma, the girls’ overbearing mother, who turned toward the church after experiencing her own challenges in the music industry.

While I enjoyed listening to former American Idol champion Jordin Sparks sing, I was not impressed by her acting ability. Damaged and vulnerable Sister (Ejogo) is the real showstopper as she takes center stage in her micro minis and provocative moves. Offstage, she scrambles for her next fix and deals with an abusive husband.



Movie Review: Ruby Sparks

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

The film opens with 29-year-old Calvin (Paul Dano) struggling to write a second novel after the extraordinary success of his first novel, written at age nineteen. Under pressure from his agent to write a new novel and his brother’s taunts (Chris Messina) about an uncertain future, Calvin meets with his therapist (Elliot Gould) who suggests that he write something, anything.

Calvin starts writing about the beautiful girl (Zoe Kazan) who appears in his dreams. He gives her a name (Ruby Sparks) and shortly afterward, she appears in his kitchen. At first, Calvin thinks he is losing his mind, but is reassured when he discovers that others can see her as well. He introduces her as his girlfriend and even takes her out to visit his hippie mother (Annette Benning) and step-father (Antonio Banderas).

Romantic comedy with a dark twist…That is probably the best description of Ruby Sparks. And while the film does deliver comedic moments as well as more serious relationship scenes, I would personally have preferred more humor. In particular, I enjoyed the scenes with Chris Messina, Annette Benning and Antonio Banderas.



Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Posted on by Joanne Guidoccio

From the trailer, I gathered there would be a romance between Fred Jones (Ewan McGregor) and the beautiful Harriet Chetwode-Talbot (Emily Blunt). And Patricia Maxwell (Kirstin Scott Thomas) would provide comic relief as the over-the-top press secretary to the British prime minister.

But there is more to this movie that combines the screenwriting talents of Simon Beaufoy (Slumdog Millionaire) and the directorial abilities of Lasse Hallström (Chocolat).  The end result is an inspiring movie  about making the impossible possible.

A visionary sheik (Amr Waked) wants to stock the Yemen River with North Atlantic salmon. Desperate for a positive human interest story from the Middle East, Patricia Maxwell sets in motion a chain of events involving Britain’s leading fisheries expert, Fred, and the sheik’s attaché, Harriet.

At first skeptical, Fred admits that the idea is “theoretically possible” and then adds the qualifier: “the way a manned mission to Mars is theoretically possible.” But after meeting the sheik and spending time under the desert sun, Fred becomes enthusiastic about the project. Together, Fred, Harriet and the sheik embark on an upstream journey of faith and fish.