Christmas Movies Not About Christmas

Wolf of Wall Street
I'm gonna go ahead and assume that Jordan Belfort is as annoying as he's made out to be in this motion picture. I think Scorsese is doing some kind of meta-thing as this is a cogent movie based on a delusional memoir. In this way it's kind of a Hunter S. Thompson sort of movie. Belfort's grandiose version of being despicable most likely massages the same ego that made being despicable profitable for a short amount of time. I'm sure Scorsese's picking up on that. By writing a book and making a movie Belfort is permitted a wry smile for a little bit longer. Though, the consummate Bro, here, is lauded only by himself and chided by those telling the story. This movie is not about Wall Street, the financial crisis, Corporate America or anything else like that. This movie is about how some goof-ball tells his own goof-ball story. Scorsese and Leo after their meetings with Belfort probably had plenty of opportunities to mockingly say, "Get a load of this guy." In other words, I think Scorsese is just making fun of the guy which makes this a movie about a story teller and story telling, in general. I liked it alright.

The Desolation of Smaug

So many of my friends are righteously pissed due to fabricated characters and the sheer lack of integrity Peter Jackson lops about in this wishy-washy back-up to a pretty stellar first installment. I kind of agree with them on that but you know what, I still had a good time watching Dwarves and Elves and all that. I mean if I wanted Peter Jackson to perfectly re-create Tolkein for me then I'd need like a new brain or something, preferably one that belonged to me when I was 11; and that's just not possible. I like the white Ork. I even liked the love story for some weird reason. Cumberbatch in all his recent glory can even play a flying serpent that speaks English. There's plenty here to piss off the Tolkeinites but there's also plenty here to be entertained by. I'll probably see this movie 30-40 more times in my life. I won't even have to try, it will just sort of happen. And based on this first viewing, I'm OK with that being the case.

Catching Fire

These sure are fun. They've got the whole thing really well balanced, I think. There's just enough to keep it Young Adult and just enough to keep an Adult watching. This one is a little more entertaining than the first and a little less gut wrenching. Unlike The Desolation of Smaug, Catching Fire hugs the book closer and delivers a product that Hunger Games readers can be all like, "Whoa. Yes." about. I've found that high school students are less thrilled with these movies than my friends are. They're certainly wrapped up in the love stories but they're also really bland about the altered relationship-gender roles. I recently polled over a hundred high school students on gay marriage. Unanimously (UNANIMOUSLY), the students voted that gay marriage should be considered a Human Rights issue and that it should be legal to marry whomever you like. Maybe Hunger Games type stuff is doing work that Adults can't fully appreciate, especially for how un-alarmed it's making all those Young Adults.

American Hustle

I've listened to two movie critic roundtables wherein this movie was the centerpiece. The second I only listened to because I had to double-check what I was hearing in the first (I promise, I'm usually only good for one movie critic roundtable a week). Every single critic gawks, drools over, and bombastically lavishes this movie with well-worded sentences accolades. I mean everyone loves this. It is pretty fun to watch. David O. Russell gives it just about as much crazy as you can handle but also has you wanting just a bit more, all at once. Christian Bale is hilarious. Jennifer Lawrence keeps on being big-time. Bradley Cooper is good at being manic, we've established that much. But I'm still waiting for someone to hate on this movie. One that attempts as much could point towards the scenes that barely hold together, the sometimes obvious improvisation that makes it less neat, and maybe say something about how Renner might not be as good as we once thought. Regardless, this will win awards and all that.

Nebraska

One of my friends said it better than me so I can't take credit for the remark but, "Nebraska (film) is a one joke movie." For real, there's one joke here and it lasts for about an hour and a half. That's a long joke, especially one that's not all that happy, really. I walked home from the movie theater. Dreary, black and white, pulled-back camera shots into a really depressing version of middle-America can make walking home feel like the only option. I'm usually all about road-trip movies. But Alexander Payne (in his second road trip movie) made driving through the heartland kind of heartbreaking. I'm sure that this is a great movie. It even had a couple of laugh out loud moments. The music and black and white both worked, I thought. The acting was really incredible in parts. Ultimately, though, I kept getting kind of bored. The joke was wearing off and by the end had stopped being funny. Thankfully, Payne is a sucker for happy endings, or at least as happy as he can think to make them. I recommend it.