Sam’s Place

Once (2006)

Sam: ****

• An Irish musical romance — more or less. If you like The Waterboys, The Commitments, low-budget cinema, and Umbrellas of Cherbourg, you’ll love this. Otherwise you’ll probably think it’s pretty good. The folk-rock song-writing isn’t quite strong enough to hold up the movie, due to excessively literal, linear, & predictable lyrics (poison to folky music). Still, pretty good.

Emma: ****

• A nice story but the movie lagged a bit in the middle.

On a Clear Day (2005)

Emma: ****

• A well-acted & well-filmed feel-good triumph-over-adversity movie.

Sam: ***

• Good cinematography. Not bad otherwise but it was a little predictable & unbelievable.

The Good German (2006)

Sam: **

• This is Steven Soderbergh’s homage to WW2 movies, shot in black-&-white. At first I found it technically interesting but then lost interest as the boringness of the movie ground me down.

Emma: **

• I like the concept but the execution was weak. & slow-moving — you could keep falling asleep & not miss anything. George Clooney acts like George Clooney, as usual, & the rest of the cast overacts.

The History Boys (2006) 

Emma: ****

• Good acting from the stage-to-screen cast — & I liked the ’80s music.

Sam: **

• “Why was there not more anger at the depiction of sexual abuse in The History Boys?“

12 Angry Men (1957)

Sam: ****

• Considering that this is old and based on a (TV) play, it’s surprisingly not too dated or stagy — other than in a few scenes (like when most of the other jurors literally turn their backs on the bigot). It becomes like a detective story, with the jurors searching for clues.

Emma: ****

• It’s impressive that the movie is set in one room but you don’t get bored watching it.

—-

The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton

Sam: ****

• A good telling of the sad adulthood of Victorian home-maker advice book writer Isabella Beeton.

Emma: ***

• It’s upsetting for a parent to watch a movie in which children die.

Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)

Sam: ****

• A creepy subject. The director didn’t include narration or expert interviews, so the movie showed how the Temple members felt more than it provided much detail or context. I had hoped for more San Francisco history. A cautionary tale about the dangerous combination of mysticism, authoritarianism, communalism, & utopianism.

Emma: ***

• I didn’t like the subject matter and wish I hadn’t seen this movie. It made me upset and uncomfortable to see people so brainwashed that they let their children be killed. It reminded me of how Americans were brainwashed (by Fox News, etc.) at the beginning of the Iraq war.

The Silencers (1966)

Sam: **

• This was the 1st of Dean Martin’s movies where he portrays a James Bondian character — or rather an Our Man Flynt (also released in ‘66) character. Amazingly, the thin plot was based on a book. Pretty bad, other than pulchritude, and some funny gizmos, like the round bed the drops the waking sleeper into a bubbly bathtub/pool of water.

Emma: **

• Bad but in an almost comical way.

Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Emma: ****

• Good, especially the acting, but it didn’t entirely work for me. Didn’t come to a satisfactory conclusion.

Sam: ****

• Yeah, unsatisfying ending but good, with the emphasis on good. Besides the acting, good cinematography (nice colors), etc.

Linda Linda Linda (2005, Japan)

Sam: ****

• Not much story here (high school girls plan to play some punk-pop cover tunes at a school festival). There’s a lot of quiet Jim Jarmusch-style quietness, & some childishly cute Wes Anderson-style moments. I wouldn’t want to see another movie like this but it was just interesting enough for 4 stars. Subtract a star if you don’t like boring foreign movies.

Emma: ****

• Not show-stoppingly amazing but quirky & surprising, if a little slow. Shows a different side of Asia than is usually portrayed in cinema.

The Queen (2006)

Sam: ***

• I was all set to dislike this movie — I was annoyed by Helen Mirren at the Oscars, & I thought the story would be uninteresting. But it was a pretty good movie — good acting & music. It started strong & then seemed to sag a little. Still, pretty good.

Emma: ****

• Very good acting. But I felt like they didn’t completely capture the feeling of time. Too pro-queen & revisionist; at the time it seemed like the queen seriously fumbled the royal family’s reaction to Diana’s death. It’d be interesting to know what really happened — was her reticence really a result of traditionalism, or did she just not like Diana? More thought-provoking than I had expected.

The Last King of Scotland (2006)

(2006) 

Sam: ***

• A well-made movie — I liked how the film portrayed an optimistic post-colonial Uganda before descending into horror. Also, good acting, particularly Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin. On the other hand, one of the main plot developments was not historically accurate (according to a dvd bonus interview with Whitaker), which bugged me.

Emma: ****

• I liked it but it was too graphically violent in parts.

La Haine (1995)

Sam: ****

• First (& only?) French hip-hop movie. Still good 12 years later.

Emma: ****

• I liked the cinematography & characters.

I’m removing another good book from my ProgressDaily list: David Berreby’s Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind. Buy it, read it — I’m just removing it because I want a small number of the most relevant titles only.

—

And Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty. Ditto.

—

And Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

—

And The Little Book That Beats the Market.