Everybody's Fine

Well the point being everyone is not fine. The four children just tell their father, played by Robert De Niro, that they are rich, successful and happy due to the constant pressure he put on them as children and the expectations he currently has for them. Throughout the course of the movie one of the children, David "The Artist" is missing, the siblings believe him to be in a Mexican prison, and De Niro's character Frank Goode, is constantly worried about him. Frank's four children are all fine as the title suggests (well, save David) but not great, not rich, and lie to their father to keep his expectations at bay. They are realistic characters, and for that I appreciated the movie because what family doesn't have its share of troubles, but I was always worried about Frank about what he was setting himself up for and what he would inevitably discover. I was left wondering what happened to David, how he ended up in Mexico in the first place and I also wish the audience could have seen more of what went on in the lives of the siblings outside of the lies they told their father. But, it was Frank's story and we can only know what he knows. It's a sad movie, it has its plot holes and awkward moments, but mostly it was a man trying to find the family he'd lost and at the same time discover the family he thought he had wasn't exactly real.

Going the Distance

I loves me some Justin Long. He's funny, he's cute and who doesn't love the mac guy? I could've done without Drew Barrymore but I realize those two are in love and wanted to make this movie together, and awe isn't that cute.

It's shockingly enough about a long distance relationship. After having one myself I generally don't like most people's take on them. They are not impossible. You don't have to spend every moment of every day with someone to make it work. I will admit that having a relationship where you are together all the time and then transitioning to a long distance relationship (as the two do in this movie) is more difficult than just maintaining one but it's still not the end of the world. Still, there are a lot of people that won't even consider trying one.

Bottom line: I laughed a lot. There were some clever comedy angles I haven't seen explored before. Charlie Day from Everything's Sunny is hysterical. Don't watch this one with someone who's uncomfortable with sexual innuendo and a lot of nudity, but definitely take the time to see it.

9

Alright, so let me think this one through. There are nine dolls, created by the scientist who also creates the machine that destroys mankind as we know it, that contain nine pieces of the scientist's soul. There's some hoodoo voodoo behind-the-curtain stuff that leads to the technology of soul slicing and removing (Harry Potter anyone?) but after the ninth doll is animated the scientist dies. The dolls have one major enemy, a small cat like robot that tries to steal their technology to reanimate the "evil" machine that once ruled the world (and killed all the humans) but after one pretty short fight scene the cat robot is taken out. So...that's the end right? No. The doll #9 reanimates the evil machine...on purpose...to see what will happen... What?

The rest of the movie is the evil machine coming back into power and kicking the shit out of the dolls in various creepy ways, and the dolls trying to turn the machine back off. Five of the nine dolls die but the #9, the one that causes the problem in the first place gets to live! And then in the end it rains and I thought of Wall-E. It's Tim Burton does Wall-E and War of the Worlds with rag dolls. A must miss for sure.

Crazy Heart

Jeff Bridges plays a drunk has-been (or never-was) country singer named Bad Blake who barely makes it to gigs, can hardly hold it together during performances, and is bitter about his protege Tommy (played by Colin Farrell) becoming a famous country music star. Maggie Gyllenhaal's character Jean is an amateur reporter trying to get an interview with Bad for a story she is writing. Bridges plays a drunk well, as we've all seen with "The Dude" in The Big Lebowski but in Crazy Heart his character has evolved; there is another layer added on - the reason the Oscars took notice I'm sure. Bad becomes a danger to himself and those around him and he's incapable of controlling his addiction. Jean does her best to love Bad, as much as anyone can love someone who puts them second in line behind their addiction, but inevitably Bad puts his drinking above responsibility and Jane has to move on.


It felt a little close to home having had an alcoholic country singer as a step-father and after a quick phone call to my mother she confirmed a similar take. "I knew that movie," she said, "I lived it."

My favorite moment in the film was after Bad finally goes to rehab to heal from his alcoholism and does the obvious - returning to Jean to try to win her back - but lo and behold Jean says no. The reason I love this moment is because so often the movies like to breeze through addiction, as if love can somehow overcome all and there is only sunshine and rainbows in your life once you find the "right" person. But that's all bullshit. AA, NA, Al-anon, they all will tell you flat out that dependence on another person, including romantic relationships, actually hinders your success at overcoming addiction. It's an obstacle to putting yourself and your health first, from realizing that you need to fix you and not someone else. They discourage dating during recovery. It tells me the writer of the novel (same name) this movie was based on came from a place of knowing, of witnessing. The characters were played to perfection, the story worked well on the screen and the music was beautiful. For me, and for my mom, this movie was sad, too real and too close, but I don't regret watching it.