Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

director: David O. Russell
*inspired by a novel by Matthew Quick
country: USA
imdb

I'm really late to the party with this one. Its reputation precedes it and it was hailed on so many levels that I became a bit sceptical - people often fall for feel good movies or the ones with massive screenplay/scenery which are most of the time really bad if you try to understand what lies under the bombastic surface (what I have in mind are the likes of Slumdog Millionare, The Tree of Life and such ...).

The story is probably already well known: Pat (played by Bradley Cooper) got released from mental health institution after beating up his wife's lover. He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, has to move with in his parents, take medication and go to mandatory therapy sessions. I really like the way it deals with mental illness - it doesn't try to make us pity the character and it doesn't show him like some sort of martyr (I'm looking at you, 50/50!).

Pat comes home full of energy and positive thoughts. He wants to settle things with his wife (who now has a restraining order against him). The luggage he brought back from the hospital is the motto "Excelsior!" and determination to surround himself only with positivity.

This is not how the world rolls out of the hospital and I think that the movie elegantly shows just how mental institution equips someone to go back to society - not much is actually shown or said about it but we see that they force him into the positivity talk that turns really foggy when you're exposed to distressing situation. Which may be just an everyday situation for someone with bipolar disorder. All the work was actually done by himself - with a help from Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence).

 

source: collider.com

Tiffany is a young widow and has her own string of problems. The two of them make a lovely pair - each of them waving around with their wedding rings (one from late husband and one from ex wife), both are excelling in saying most inappropriate things; most probably because the're settled for being the family outcast and the crazy one. They become a crutch for one another.

The story does have the classic "rom-com triangle" - they start off with "denial", what's meant to happen is "the fuck-up" + "the sudden realization" and then comes the "working hard to get it back" part and reconciliation when it all falls into place. Nonetheless it totally works here and it does seem exciting and fresh - mostly because it deals with unconventional topic (in an unconventional way!), it has smart characters (you get a superstitious father (Robert De Niro) with OCD and a gambling problem, douchebag brother (Shea Whigham), mother (Jacki Weaver) who tries to hold it all together, Danny (Chris Tucker) - fellow patient that jumps back and forth between the hospital and out ...), ALL brilliantly executed by the cast.

I only resent one of the first and a last detail of the movie - it's the picture of young Pat in his parent's house that went off the wall and back on at the end of the movie. If that was only shown in the background so that attentive viewer could still catch it, it would underline the severity of the fact that his father gave up on him. But it being placed straight in front of the viewer back again is a little underestimating. Also because I don't think it goes along with De Niro's character - how could he give up on a son that turned out so much like him and still have faith in himself?

Overall it's a very good movie and all the buzz about it is fully justified. It's a refreshing combination of drama and comedy that doesn't let you feel "up up up" (as Pat Sr. says) but lightly drops you back on the ground and lets you to continue that struggle in the life you lead. It's not a bed of roses.

The world will break your heart ten ways to Sunday. That's guaranteed. I can't begin to explain that. Or the craziness inside myself and everyone else. But guess what? Sunday's my favorite day again. I think of what everyone did for me, and I feel like a very lucky guy. 

my rating: 9/10*

*charming and down to earth

One of my favorite scenes (just look how calm and convinced Pat Sr. is by her deduction!) :)

Superbad (2007)

director: Greg Mottola
*I also have to mention:
- the writers: Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg - and as the names of the lead characters suggest, the story is loosely based on their experience;
- and producer: Judd Apatow - because you definitely see his touch in the final product
country: USA
imdb

This one is an "oldie" (damn, time flies!) but I have to get it off my chest. If I weren't too sure about this movie I would try to point off that this is kind of my quilty pleasure, something like if you caught me listening to Rihanna or Katy Perry (not that I do!) - BUT NO! I think this is one of the greatest comedies ever, The Big Lebowski of our decade!

 source: nerdacy.com

The hilarious fake ID scene

The story is about two inseparable high school seniors - Seth and Evan, played by Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. It features all the main anxieties of that stage of life - trying to stand up for yourself, moving away for college and leaving your friends behind, having uncertain future ... but the top of the priorities is to finally get laid to get the guts to look future fellow students in the eye. Then all of the other stuff will sort of fall into place.

There are three weeks of school left and that means not much more time to mingle. And being unpopular is one more disadvantage. All they seem to have left is one party that would determine their whole summer. That was the plan:

"She's gonna be at the party, and she's gonna be drunk, and she likes me at least a little, enough to get with me. At the very least I'll make out with her, two weeks hand job, month blow job, whatever whatever. And then, I make her my girlfriend. And I've got like two solid months of sex. By the time college rolls around I'll be like the Iron Chef of pounding vaj."

What it is - an honest comedy with many hilarious twists and turns. The air seems to be electrified by Seth's hysterical attempts to make the plan work. From when we meet our the characters it's all about getting to that party and bringing booze for everyone while being underage. And every minute delivers! It features one of the best cop duo in the movie history (Bill Hader and Seth Rogen), amazing performance of Joe Lo Truglio as the creepy "Francis the driver", Emma Stone's first performance in a movie and last but not least - the geeky star of the show Fogell aka McLovin' (Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

source: fanpop.com 

Would you believe this is a 25 year-old Hawaiian organ donor, named McLovin? (Maybe if you were a stressed out saleswoman who has a veterinary exam the next day ...)

The conversations and the situations are so well thought and the script is just bombastic - it doesn't hold back! There are talks about boobs, blowjobs, erections, semen, even the lube that are stretching from supermarket to school, from telephone to face-to-face conversation, from one lecture to another ... I think this movie as a whole is a testament of what "shitload of shit" you have to do as a teenager to fit in. While it is probably also the time of your life.

Everytime I put the DVD on (yeah, I totally bought the DVD!) and the 60s/70s funk starts to play my face turns into one big smile ... and then I laugh my ass off while remembering some of that bittersweet feelings of leaving high school.

my rating: 10/10*

*this is classic!

Another one of my fauvorite scenes from the movie:

What do you think about Superbad? Is the language too vulgar?

The Women on the 6th Floor (2010)

director: Philippe Le Guay
country: France
imdb

I can't think of many good romantic comedies and this is definitely not one of them. It does start off with a French charm (oh the dignity, neatness and those pastels!) and you also get the taste of proverbial Spanish charisma, which also serves as an illustration of the class barrier between the "uptight stockbroker" and his wife on the one side and the Spanish maids (immigrants from Francoist Spain) on the other. 

It's set in Paris in the 1960s - the story and the characters are pretty straight forward - and it soon becomes clear that it's going to be a story about a good Samaritan and it's going to be a "feel good movie" (I despise "feel good movies" but maybe more about that some other time).

We have the uptight stockbroker, Monsieur Joubert by name (played by Fabrice Luchini) that starts to get the sense of the bad conditions in which the maids who work in their appartment building live in. They live on the 6th floor and you can imagine ... It's a whole other world up there. He had maids around him since he was born but what suddenly made him interested in their lives is the fact that he got a new maid - much younger and vital Maria! She is played by Natalia Verbeke, with a much needed wide smile for the role. There you have the usual suspect that always pairs next to someone uptight - someone to loosen him up and twist his life around. And that is etheric, pure (virgin-like, as also her name suggests) and full of joie de vivre at the same time. Which his wife and other stockbroker mates do not posses!

He grows fond of her and her social circle - the other maids. It was his dirty little secret - enjoying in their joie de vivre and taking pleasure from their thankful eyes and screams of life-long gratitude when he so generously lets them use a phone. For a long distance call! And arranges a repairing of their clogged toilet. Oh only now they deserve it?

The movie wants you to think that they deserve it because they make their poverty and difficult contitions seem so effortless, quite enjoyable and SO FUN! (It sure helps if you have a smile like a JLo - one of her friends was not so blessed and before she could get her sugar daddy she had to pull off an impressive set of hairstyles and changes of wardrobe. Or maybe she just wasn't that pure in her heart, if you believe in this crap?)

So now-not-so-uptight-anymore stockbroker wants to be a part of that "frisky" life. And most of all he wants to be a part of Maria's life. The only slight surprise which was only a surprise because I thought French people have more taste is the part that they just ended up naked in the bed. It's one of the cheesiest scenes I ever witnessed that me and my sister literally screamed from the stomach pain!

Then the movie wants to deliver a little more and it turns out that she has some little secret too. It's probably no spoiler here at all since it all comes with such little surprise but anyway, let's leave it at this point. You can imagine that it ends cheesy and not very well thought. 

Along with Fabrice Luchini who is the highlight of the movie - his performance is still charming despite all the above circumstances it also includes the Carmen Maura. She's gets lost among the chatty maids but even their performance cannot help this movie.


my rating: 3/10*

*I was about to rate it 2/10 but my sister passionately dissagreed by saying that scores that low are reserved for movies in which Adam Sandler plays two roles. I thought she made a very good point :)

Just a taste:

 

Have you watched it? Any different thoughts?

Hello there!

So hello there! I'm just starting this blog, which may stay for my eyes only and to feed my enthusiasm for movies.

I've set up this amateur and *pretty horrible* design for the content that is about to appear soon...

And as you've probably noticed this far - if you're reading it - I have to apologize for bad grammar and all, English is not my first language ...
But I do love good movies, and maybe I could make it up this way by throwing you some good suggestions. We'll see about that ;)

enough for now,
have fun!