The Iron Lady (2011)

Starring: Meryl Streep 

Director: Phyllida Lloyd

** 

I adore Meryl Streep... she is always, always spot on in all the films I've seen of hers (and I have seen many). In this one, she does not fail. Her portrayal of The Iron Lady is impeccable. The power she commanded on the screen, the moments of vulnerability, her emotions regardless of her loyalty to ideas... they are all there in the most capable hands of Streep. 

The younger Thatcher, played by Alexandra Roach, is just as adept... she matches Streep's handle and gives a poignant, rich, and powerful portrayal of her character.

Acting brilliance aside, the film is a little... unsure of itself. It seems to focus on the relationship between Thatcher and her deceased husband, Denis, and the dementia surrounding her later years. But the dementia is also used as a tool to foray into her past with flashbacks and old reels, and of course talking to a physically absent Denis. 

But it doesn't help form any solid opinion on Thatcher's politics one way or another. We get splotches, rather well lighted and spectacularly angled ones, of visuals confirming the incidents we already know from history. There is nothing new to be gained, no side pushed forward, no real argument, so to speak, except maybe that hey, look! Margaret Thatcher was HUMAN, too! 

In the end, it was mostly an affirmation of Streep's magnificence and talent, something I have no problem watching, but I could not help but wish for more. There was SO much potential here. It seemed like a soft prelude, or epilogue of a much vaster story needed to be told. 

**

Rate: 5/10 

3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Starring: Russell Crowe and Christian Bale

Director: James Mangold

**

They say westerns are out of style. Not for Mangold! He makes it so enjoyable you wonder why you left your inner cowboy glories behind at age 4.

The storyline is simple, but the dialogue is sharp. The acting is... well, CROWE AND BALE! I think that should define that well.

Action and drama mixed in with a sentimentality that may kill. Ask Wade at the end.

Curious how beautiful boys look a lot like girls.

And the music thrills.

Ah, entertained. I love the feeling!

**

Rate: 7/10

In The Bedroom (2001)

Starring: Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek, Nick Stahl, Marisa Tomei and William Mapother.

Director: Todd Field

**

This is a gorgeous and gripping film. The script is beyond fabulous, and the acting is no less.

There are movies where the soundtrack is seemingly perfect... but this film blows the seamlessness of those films away... The music weaves so accurately it made me cry. Not because of its emotional reflection, but just at the PERFECTION of it. Rarely in a work of art these days do you claim perfection. When people do, they might drink a beer, eat a cupcake, I don't know, kiss someone. I cry.

I am glad I will have died having seen this film. So, I hope, will you be.

**

Rate: 9/10

The Insider (1999)

Starring: Al Pacino (Lowell Bergman), Russell Crowe (Jeffrey Wigand), Christopher Plummer (Mike Wallace)

Directed By: Michael Mann

**

Intense. That's the word that jumped out at me as the ending credits rolled. It's not the sort of intense that scarred the film Momento into so many minds, or even in the way the film Hunger is. This is intensity in REALITY, perhaps a ~little~ blown up, but damn, it had me hating corporations.

The main theme is, as it is in all "Freedom of Press" marathons, the truth being revealed. I think I'll leave it at that.

I've been on a Crowe thirst lately, and I have found so far that he has a knack for completely embodying the role he's asked to play... Granted, many of his roles thus far have had a certain similar trend to them. But Crowe really has not failed one yet. And Pacino... Ah, dear dear Al. he's a magnet on that screen. On any screen actually...

I don't understand why women are so emotional... but then there are bad men too so I shouldn't complain.

See it when in mood for Truth being banged on your head pleasantly.

**

Rate: 8/10

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008)

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Zac Mattoon O'Brien, Vera Farmiga
Director: Mark Herman


This film is about the innocence of childhood, the curiosity that makes the world magical from the perspective of an inquisitive young mind. A film about childhood friendship. A film that showcases how children see the world with such simplicity, perhaps implying that it is actually grown men who are the juvenile.

Finally, a film that doesn't want to follow a traditional Hollywood ending. A film that leaves you devastated, not because of the events of the film itself, but because we've been conditioned to believe in happy endings. Every film needs a hero and a villain, where the villain is defeated and the hero triumphs, right?

Mark Herman answers that question with a resounding no.

Watch the film. You'll see why.

B+ acting.
B directing.
B- plot.

Precious

Director: Lee Daniels

Starring: Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz

Year: 2009

**

Theme: Why Me? And understandably so. Precious is that character whose shoes no one wants to be in, and whose shoes, when left behind to tell a story, might make you shed those tears of pity.

A tortured existence who manages, despite all the crap dealt to her, to slip away into her own fantastic world of fantazy. In some ways, it's a version of "Pans Labyrinth" but to much less imaginative extent. After all, Precious is a Harlem teenager who has never had a boyfriend, been forcefully fed to grow into the size she is, and been pregnant twice. But let me leave the plot at that.

Mo'Nique stole the screen with her presence. She was downright intimidating. Scared the heck out of me. And then when she sat blubbering at the end, I felt disturbed at that ounce of compassion crawling out for her over-powdered round face. Amazing. A comdian doing THAT. How wonderful is human capacity!

Enjoyable... if you can call something like this enjoyable!

**

Rate: 6/10

Watchmen

Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson.
Year: 2009

**

Fun. Ripe with politics. Sexiness. Crime. Violence. And philosophy.

Yes, you read me right. Philosophy. The themes are all controversial and the heroes each are confronted with their own private issues that miraculously affects the survival of the human race...

I love Nixon's fake nose... and that they didn't bother to make it seem too real. It adds to the artistic appeal of the film.

If anyone knows where I can get a mask like Rorschach, holler. I want it!

**

Rate: 6/10