It’s not often that this happens, but recently we’ve gone on a kick of watching movies and they’ve all been pretty good. In the order that we’ve seen them, here they are:
1) The Savages.
What’s great about this movie — besides being set in Buffalo — is that it faces the idea of growing old head-on. Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney, playing a couple of grown-up siblings who never really grew up and who still have familial issues to deal with, are wonderful. Phillip Bosco as their father, gradually slipping away and growing less and less coherent and connected, is the emotional center of the film, precisely because he doesn’t overdo it emotionally. There’s nothing cute about his character (as there was about Alan Arkin‘s in the somewhat similar Little Miss Sunshine). There’s no epiphany, just reality. One of the most moving scenes is when brother and sister are arguing in the car, and the father turns down his hearing aide so he doesn’t have to listen.
2) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Although frankly, I wasn’t as blown away by this as I thought I would be. Maybe because I had the most expectations going in. True, Julian Schnabel does a fantastic job with the images and sensations in the film, and Mathieu Amalric is fantastic in the lead. None of the other actors really stand out, though, and the story itself, while moving, does not always make for a good movie.
3) Gone Baby Gone.
In some ways this might be my favorite of the recent films we’ve seen. For one thing, I was utterly unprepared for how well-made and entertaining it would be. The dialogue was a bit wooden at times, but overall this movie functioned exactly like a good detective novel. Casey Affleck, as the young p.i. digging up clues on a heinous crime in a tough community, is actually quite good. He pulls off the whole “detective with his own moral code in a world of shit” in a pretty believable way, which is not an easy thing to do. Chandler‘s Marlowe basically depends on this quality, and it provides the through-line for a film that gets pretty convoluted at times.
4) Iron Man.
Tina said she wanted to see this and I quickly agreed — we’d both heard good things about it, and I’m a big fan of Robert Downey Jr. What can I say? It’s fun. It actually takes the time to develop the characters and tell a story. Downey Jr. knocks all of his laugh lines out of the park, and since Iron Man has no special powers — besides the brains to develop his special suit — he’s playing a real human being, not some kind of high-tech cartoon. And the suit is pretty damn cool. We had so much fun, and the movie is such a quick two hours, that we didn’t even mind the obnoxious kids yammering away behind us. A real throw-back to decent action-hero flicks.
I found *Iron Man* offensive in many ways, even though I thought Downey did a great job. Setting the original conflict in Afghanistan bothered me. The female role Paltrow filled was pretty offensive, too: “I do whatever Mr. Stark tells me to do.”
Well, Afghanistan is where the “good” war is. There was a mild critique of the weapons culture sprinkled in there, and the bad guys there were clearly supposed to be “terrorists” who were hated by the locals. . . but yeah, I had to wince every time the story swung that way.
But — what’s wrong with the female role???
I think my favorite out of these four is The Savages.
Iron Man was really fun and enjoyable. I’m usually overly-critical, but I just let myself enjoy this one despite its flaws (a couple of which you point out, Steve). But, hey, if Mr. Stark is Robert Downey Jr., I‘d do whatever he told me to do. 😉
Downey is a pretty boy.
The Paltrow character had little to do but look confused and follow orders, wandering about in heels so high she could barely walk. That is certainly a throwback to the “good old days” of action-hero flicks.