roastmary-1 Reviews

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Torture

[7/10 · 21 December 2012]

It has been established, it wasn't torture or, quoting that dishonest euphemism, "enhanced interrogation" that took the intelligence community to Bin Laden. So, how is it possible that this film by intelligent people would perpetrate that lie? The film is technically brilliant but it becomes tedious because, naturally, we know the ending. The other strange fact is the casting of Jessica Chastain. She seems elsewhere, emotionally and otherwise. I couldn't connect with her, I was far too aware of the "acting" I see she's getting lots of acting nominations, I don't quite get it. Katheryn Bigelow at the helm does a truly extraordinary job, but I can't help, worrying that most people will take this as fact and, perhaps, the most important aspect is pure fiction. No tortured prisoner took us to Bin Laden, okay?

The Tourist (I) (2010)

How Can It Possibly Be?

[1/10 · 12 December 2010]

I was looking forward to "The Tourist" Depp and Jolie in a "Charade" like romp. Well, not such luck. Seems as if the director has never even seen a Stanley Donen movie. Not a single moment of fun. Not one! Angelina Jolie behaves like a first time model wearing dresses that were meant for someone else. Atrocious is the word that comes to mind. I haven't been this embarrassed for actor since Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates in the remake of "Psycho" Her lines and her delivery are worthy of an amateur, and the script? Goodness, gracious, me! How can this possibly be? Even Venice looks banal. Depp manages a couple of moments but doesn't look well as if we were looking at the movie in the wrong ratio. 15 $ a ticket. I'm so mad! Glimpses of famous (in Italy) Italian actors including Alessio Boni (from The Best Of Youth) add to the depression I felt sitting through this. They must have thought "a big Hollywood movie with Jolie, Depp and the director of "The Lives Of Others" what a break! Well I was fooled myself. Unforgivable!

Fair Game (I) (2010)

Fact, fiction and vice versa

[7/10 · 4 December 2010]

An outrageous act that the perpetrators managed to get away with it, in fact this particular perpetrators got away with more than anyone in recent history. Scooter Libby, guilty as hell himself became the protective shield of the Vice President. We all know that, so how is it possible that nothing has been done about it? Joe Wilson and Valerie Plane are the attractive protagonists of this thriller that looks and feels like a work of fiction. They are played by the wonderful Sean Penn and Naomi Watts, although the hand held camera and the digital thing worked against them, She looks as if suffering from some kind of skin ailment. David Andrews is great as Scooter Libby. Horrid. The director, however, should have been the Costa Gavras of "Z" or "State Of Siege" Fair Game doesn't go deep enough. If you don't know about it, you'll be very confused and won't be as outraged as one should be. I followed the outraged as it played on the Cable News networks, in the papers and on line, that's why I wanted more from the film but I'm glad it was made and I hope it tickles the curiosity of the naturally indifferent to awaken a truly patriotic sense of disgust.

The Social Network (2010)

An Acceptable Form Of Horror

[7/10 · 4 December 2010]

Maybe I'm too old. No, not maybe, I am. I saw this characters as aliens of sorts. I know they represent today's landscape, brrrrr. The film as a film is one of the best of David Fincher but the universe it explores gave the chills. A world approaching its end, fast. The youth of the characters made it even more sinister. I couldn't detect their soul or any evidence of its existence. In a way they represent the worst of the previous generations. Roman Emperors or Wall Street. Profit is the name of the game and the ideas come out of boredom of longings to get laid. Love and friendship, loyalty and/or honor as obsolete as good manners. Jesse Eisenberg is chillingly perfect as the humanoid that started it all - or did he? - Justin Timberlake keeps surprising me. Good, very good and Andrew Garfield, the most recognizable of the characters is a victim of sorts and he'll be destroyed no matter how much money he gets. How I wish this was merely a science-fiction film.

Black Swan (2010)

Intellectual-Camp

[7/10 · 4 December 2010]

I had a lot of fun watching the gorgeous Natalie Portman go through her pirouettes. A film that runs the gamut from "The Red Shoes" to "Repulsion" without reaching the heights of those masterpieces it manages to be an original opus from one of the most interesting directors of late. Darren Aronofsky's confidence is overwhelming. I regret I'll be dead and buried by the time Natalie Portman is 50 but I would give anything to see what this wonderful actress will be by that age. Here, she goes through the motions without avoiding any of the enormous difficulties her character requires. Vincent Cassel plays the French choreographer with a touch of Dhiagelev and oodles of sex appeal. Winona Ryder gives the film its campy touches, which makes the whole enterprise much more accessible than it seems at first. I enjoyed it very much even if I was aware of the effort to be seriously intellectual.

The American (2010)

I miss Jean Pierre Melville

[4/10 · 12 September 2010]

The stillness of the film reminded me that the director, Anton Corbijn, was a still's photographer - what a coincidence - Here, the proceedings are enormously self-conscious, therefore the pacing becomes a minus instead of a plus. I like George Clooney but here he's in every frame and I kept longing for the Alain Delon of Jean Pierre Melville's "Le Samourai" Here I started to get impatient ten minutes into the film, something that never, ever, happened to me with a Melville film. On the plus side, the locations are breathtaking, like in "Eat Pray Love" but with a darker mood and a more "artistic" intention but stunning none the less. Violante Placido (daughter of Michele Placido) gives us an astonishing full frontal seconds after her appearance on the screen. I was already familiar with her spectacular forms for a film in which she was directed by her daddy. I think Anton Corbijn, is a talented director to be followed, at least until his next film. Then let's see what happens.

Somewhere (2010)

No

[4/10 · 12 September 2010]

This is the one film I wanted to see at the Venice Film Festival and, dear, oh dear. A strange "tribute" to the French New Wave, at least that's what I think I thought. No emotional hooks to be found even if the story by its very nature should be emotional, not sentimental but emotional. I was in a sort of emotional limbo from beginning to end, hoping to cling on to something but not such luck. To be a French New Wave director you have to be French and working in France preferably pre-1970. What is Sofia Coppola all about? This film, after "Marie Antoniette", makes me wonder. I can't guess what her intention was here. News that ex boyfriend Quentin Tarantino, president of the Venice Film Festival Jury, awarded "Somewhere" the top honor doesn't really surprise me but it makes me so mad. What an outrageous blatant move. I wonder what Tarantino's adoring Italian critics are going to say now.

Eat Pray Love (2010)

What planet is she from?

[4/10 · 15 August 2010]

I love travelogues and I'm a fan of Julia Roberts but, what happened here? I'm not sure in what period, time wise, it this set. The only turmoil seems to be in this very selfish forty-something. What about the rest of the world? She goes for a sort of journey of discovery in a world that doesn't really exist. Did I miss something? No wars, no economic crisis, no nothing, only the intimate qualm of a woman who I, personally, cannot feel represented by. I grant you I'm from another generation but, please! What is this. I loved the food and Javier Bardem and it is in fact the Bardem episode that brings some kind of recognizable something to the proceedings. So, let me recapitulate and ask you if we've seen the same movie...A woman facing an existential crisis and moves out from her marital abode without even having a discussion about it with her husband - a scrumptious Billy Crudup - then she has an affair with James Franco - who wouldn't, right? - but the Franco in this movie is just a plain reflection of the Franco from "Milk" just to name one title. The Naples presented here seems out of the mind of someone who's never been to Naples. I don't know what to say. I'm a bit puzzled and, I should confess, a bit annoyed.

Mother and Child (2009)

Garcia's Mothers

[9/10 · 30 April 2010]

Rodrigo Garcia, the writer, director of "Mother And Child" is the son of Gabriel Garcia Marquez no less but his universe is solidly set on a reality that doesn't shy away from poetry. A poetry emerging from an open female heart. Wanting and longing for things we lost, for thing we let out of our lives. Annette Bening is superb. Superb! "She's 38 today" Annette tells her failing mother, talking about the daughter she gave up for adoption when she was merely 14. Naomi Watts is the long lost daughter and she is an updated version of the mother she never knew. Naomi Watts confirms, once more, her extraordinary range. The film works on every level and we live the changes the characters suffer with a palpitating heart of recognition. The entire cast is outstanding with Samuel L Jacksong giving a performance that is a revelation in itself. Gentle, strong, moving, powerful and funny. A film I highly recommend.

I Love You Phillip Morris (2009)

With A Message To The Marketing People.

[9/10 · 23 April 2010]

A few months ago I put my name down for a preview of "I Love You Phillip Morris" I RSVP with plenty of time but the day before the screening I was called and informed that they had overbooked so I was dropped off. Strange I thought because some people I know had RSVP'd much later than me and they were included in the screening. Why? Because I was born in 1940 and the other were people in their 30's. One of them took me has his guest and surprise, surprise I was the one who loved the movie and has become since then a promoter of the film, so much so that people call me, me! to ask me "Do you know when it will be released? I have to tell the marketing experts that they got the age thing completely wrong and discrimination of this kind doesn't serve the film very well at all. Now, that out of the way, let me talk about this extraordinary film. A true story no less. A con-man searching for love and a romance like no other. Jim Carrey is superb and I bet that, if producers and distributors resolve their nonsense, he'll be a strong contender at the Oscars 2011. He injects his character with the kind of truth I hadn't seen before in a Jim Carrey performance. Much more than in "Man On The Moon" or "The Truman Show" The character allows him to be the great funny man that he is and at the same time there are layers and layers of new inedited brilliance. And if that wasn't enough, Ewan McGregor! A masterful portrayal of someone finding love in the most unexpected man in the most unexpected place. The scene of them falling in love has become one of my favorites. Now, you marketing people, will you let me in next time?

Chloe (2009)

Intense, absurd and very funny

[4/10 · 6 April 2010]

I like director Egoyan. "The Sweet Hearafter" is a truly remarkable film but "Chloe" goodness gracious me! Just look at the ladies wardrobe and tell me if you can guess what was in Egoyan's mind. Julianne Moore is fun to watch but she does what she usually does, she acts. I'm always so aware of her acting that I'm distracted out of the story. Liam Neeson seems utterly lost and the girl? Amanda Sygfried? Oh, mama mia! She looks like a grotesque blueprint for a new Goldie Hawn. I thought her was one of the worst performances I've seen in a long long time. I suspect Egoyan's intentions were mostly commercial. Naked lesbian scenes...close ups of boobs and the whole thing is irritating and annoying. The saving grace is the unintentional laughs it provokes. I laughed a lot I must confess but the film, shot beautifully, is an ugly mess

K. Il bandito (2008)

A riveting saga of a young man's wasted life

[10/10 · 2 March 2008]

I saw K IL BANDITO at the Hollywod Italian Festival and, I must say, Martin Donovan has outdone himself. His views of Venice are stunning, his actors, especially Pierluigi Coppola, are terrific, and his eye on life in Italian prisons is on the money.

He starts his life of K (Kappa) when he's just a kid, robbing and stealing with his three buddies. One hopes Kappa will change as he matures because he's bright, smart and charming. But as he and his pals grow from kids into men, Donovan shows that they don't change, their lives are wasted. But look from where Kappa comes: his father abandons him when he is a child, and Kappa's mother is a whore.

She is played superbly by Lina Sastri. Donovan gets an Academy Award performance out of her -- when she's on screen there is no one else -- she puts the entire tragic life of Kappa's mother in her eyes and I, for one, could't take my own eyes from hers. WOW, what an actress!

Kappa's girl, waiting for him as he passes in and out of prison with his pals descends into a life of destitution, drugs and prostitution.

Kappa's life is a tragedy; watching a smart guy like him fall deeper and deeper into a life of crime, one sees that Kappa, in the words of Brando, could have been a contender, he could have been someone, instead of a bum, which he is, let's face it. Pierluigi Coppola, Donovan's Kappa; turns in a fantastic performance. I think he's going to be a huge star.

I would see this film again and have given it a #10.

Stage Beauty (2004)

I was rather unimpressed with this film but must admit that the production was stunningly beautiful.

[4/10 · 18 July 2006]

I think that Clair Danes, who I happen to adore, was wrong for this part. Crudup does not appeal to me. Love Rupert Everett but he had too little to do. Disappointed!!!

The problem with this film for me is that I understood the entire plot in the first 10 minutes and from then on watched impatiently as it worked its way--slowly, way too slowly--toward a finale that I thought would never arrive.

I think it too bad that the importance of Samuel Pepys in English literature was not explained well at all. He seems to merely be a scribbler and no one quite understands what he is doing in the story. After all, kids don't read much these days, let alone Pepys, and I would have appreciated it if they had stressed who he was and what a great writer he was.

The Terminal (2004)

Avoid this film like the plague. Absolutely not recommended.

[1/10 · 11 January 2006]

What in the world was Spielberg thinking? Tom Hanks must have said yes to this film without reading the screenplay. It is so bad, so unbelievable, so ridiculous. I watched it to the bitter end hoping that there might be something redeemable in the almost two hours...but no, nothing redeemable appeared. Boy oh boy, what a disappointment.

That someone could be stranded in an airport and stay nine months, building a wall, sleeping in one of the waiting rooms night after night without being thrown out, that an airport manager could do the things that Tucci does in this film...well, I can't believe that anyone could buy the story of The Terminal. What a waste of talent: Zeta-Jones, Hanks, Tucci, Spielberg. Wow! I don't recommend this film at all.

Troy (2004)

Not recommended, even for Brad Pitt fans.

[1/10 · 20 December 2005]

This is a dreadful film. Brad Pitt, who usually turns in a good job of acting, was completely miscast, and utterly uncomfortable and unbelievable in his role of Achilles. The screenplay was a conglomerate of war and killing, killing, killing...with a smattering of love scenes. Wolfgang Petersen did a terrible job of directing and was shameless in his constant posing and posturing of his lead actor, so much so that even though Brad Pitt is beautiful to look at, one became really bored with watching him strutting around flexing his muscles. Since that's not the type of thing this wonderful actor does, one has to lay the blame on the director.

Too bad, too bad. What a waste of time and money.