Movie Review: A Most Violent Year**

A Most Violent Year in a Most Boring Two Hours.
Oscar Isaac drew me into his character, Jessica Chastain not so much, but it wasn't the performances I had a problem with, it was the writing. I couldn't wait for this film to end. Too many holes, too long, too contrived, characters I didn't care about. Need I say more?
Two out of Five Stars for A Most Violent Year.

Movie Review: American Sniper *****

I sat with my hand over my mouth for this entire film, wanting to see what was happening and not wanting to see. Bradley Cooper's performance is riveting, and the film feels like a documentary.
I'm about 50/50 on Clint Eastwood's films but this is a big five for me. There's a lot of controversy surrounding this movie but for my money a film works if I'm engrossed from beginning to end, if I'm not checking my watch, if I have feelings about the characters, if I feel I have a stake in what happens. Yes, yes, yes and yes.
American Sniper works for me. Big time.
5 out of 5 stars for American Sniper.

Movie Review: Still Alice ****1/2

Isn't it everyone's nightmare to have Alzheimer's disease? I'm too old for early onset, so that's a relief of sorts, but who knows what's to come?
Still Alice is the story of a 50-year-old woman; an intellectual, a world-renowned linguist, someone whose intelligence is her identity, and she's diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's; the ultimate irony.
I unfortunately didn't like the book the movie is based on but I loved the play that was done by Lookingglass Theatre. And I loved the film.
Julianne Moore, who's not one of my favorite actors (she doesn't seem to melt into the characters she plays) is very moving in this film. Alec Baldwin's part is not big but his performance is poignant and authentic.
Still Alice is tough to watch - it hits too close to home - but it's worth the tears, and the tissues you'll need during this movie.
4 1/2 out of 5 stars for Still Alice.

Movie Review: Big Eyes **

Big Eyes would have been a much better film if it had been less heavy-handed. If you read my reviews, tho, you know I'm a big fan of subtlety, and there's nothing subtle here.
Amy Adams is excellent but Christoph Waltz, who was great in films like Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained, is completely miscast in this part. I could see someone like Mark Wahlberg or Mark Ruffalo in the roll, someone likable who would be charming in the beginning (Waltz never is) and then sympathetic, even when perpetrating a hoax on the art world and the public.
Waltz's performance is a more of a caricature - much too broad for me. In order to buy in to the whole scenario (based on real-life events of the woman who painted those icky, but ubiquitous paintings of the big-eyed waifs in the 60s) you need to see what Margaret (Adams) sees in Walter (Waltz) in the beginning, and we never do, because Waltz's performance is too kitschy.
So, re-do the film with less melodrama and recast the part of Walter and it would be better, but you'd also have to cut about 20 minutes. It's way too long - the courtroom scene goes on forever - and had me checking my watch about 80 minutes in.
Nits to pick:
1. Why does the daughter sit in the back seat of the car? Answer: so Tim Burton (director) could put in the theme of Mom reaching across the seat to grab the daughter's hand in times of stress. And then again, in the courtroom. A nice device if it's subtle, but of course it's not, in Big Eyes.
2. Walter Keane was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, so why, in the movie, does he have a German accent?
Two stars out of five for Big Eyes, because I didn't walk out. Although I considered it.