Dogs Bark

Hung Up Wet - - Foxcatcher (2014, USA) - - 24 March 2015

Recommended.  There is nothing particularly offensive about Foxcatcher but it is only marginally worth one’s time, despite the raves from other viewers and the Academy. Bennett Miller (Capote) does a respectable job and gets some very good performances out of his ensemble.  This is clearly Steve Carell’s (Little Miss Sunshine) breakout part, proving he can be taken very seriously . . . under almost unrecognizable make-up.  Carell’s John DuPont puts the banal back in evil as he first manipulates real-life Olympian, Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum, Jupiter Ascending) and then his brother Dave (Mark Ruffalo, Shutter Island). I liked the shifting fraternal dynamics crafted by Tatum and Ruffalo. The later got another Oscar nod and I look forward to Ruffalo eventually winning a statue. Despite all this, the problem with Foxcatcher is the story. No faults to the writers . . . but crazy rich people don’t fascinate me; I’m not compelled to look at traffic accidents.

His Mother Was A Mudder - - St. Vincent (2014, USA) - - 6 March 2015

Not recommended. St Vincent begins with the title character, played by Bill Murray (Lost in Translation), telling a joke that’s not particularly funny. The film doesn’t immediately go downhill from here. Sadly, it waits until one is far more vested in the deeply flawed story. This is even sadder for the actors who do a plucky job of trying to enliven Theodore Melfi’s predictable and schmaltzy story, while overcoming his inept direction. Murray drags out his grumpy cat face, a more battered version of grumpy groundhog. We’re led to believe that he’s really a pussy cat underneath . . . then he unaccountably steals money from a child. Melfi deprives Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids) of her joyous vulgarity and saddles Naomi Watts (21 Grams) with a ridiculous Russian accent. Only the Cute Kid (Jaeden Lieberher) and the Lovable Priest (Chris O'Dowd, Bridesmaids) are allowed their own laughs or any dignity on this tedious warhorse.

Like Chicken, I Presume? - - Snowpiercer (2013, South Korea) – 2 March 2015

Not recommended. An atomic-powered locomotive constantly circles the globe protecting the socially-stratified (by car) remnants of humanity from a frozen planet after human climatic remediation goes terribly wrong. That’s the plot of Snowpiercer, Joon-ho Bong’s (The Host) first English-language picture.  Given that absurd contrivance, Snowpiercer could have gone several ways . . . the best being the excellent dark comedy of The Host. There’s just as much brutal violence in the current movie but the humor seems to have been left at the station. Some really erroneous casting occurred here, including Octavia Spencer (The Help) and Ed Harris (The Hours). Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) is slightly more effective, camping up another looney role, but Chris Evans (Captain America: The First Avenger) as the hero is totally wrong. However it’s when the characters talk that they get really stupid. “I hate myself because I know what babies taste like.” Please . . . catch the next train.

Absent Fathers - - Force Majeure (2014, Sweden) - - 25 February 2015

Recommended.  Writer /director Ruben Östlund’s (Involuntary) Force Majeure somewhat resembles The Impossible, a movie also about a complacent middle-class family on vacation that faces a natural disaster and the subsequent consequences on their collective soul. In the earlier movie, the disaster is much more serious and the family is reunited in the end. In Force Majeure, the outcome of the family is less clear-cut.  During the disaster, the father (newcomer Johannes Kuhnke) acts cowardly and this is the real crisis. All sorts of patriarchal themes are touched on, for example, whether male self-expectations of courage are out of proportion to female desires.  The spillover gender damage to the couple’s friends is even more revealing. Despite this, the hand-wringing is packed into a few days, instead of months or even years . . . which seems artificial.  I did like the ending suggesting that we all walk the road pretty much on our own.