An adoring fan's take on current cinematic news

It was not until after the credits and my short walk to the car that I started to understand what I just saw.  The tongue twister title, Martha Marcy May Marlene, deals a heavy dose of psychological abuse.  The young, twenty-something protagonist, Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) starts the film by running away from her Catskills home that she shares with a miscellaneous group of people.  Not knowing where she is or where to go she reaches out to her estranged sister, Lucy (Sarah Paulson) for help.

The title’s string of names is played by a new girl to the scene with a very famous name.  Elizabeth Olsen, younger sister of the famous Olsen twins, play the abused Martha.  In one of her first features outside the Olsen family film business,  Elizabeth shines as a girl struggling to find herself. Continue reading →

In the next year, our country will be engrossed with politics.  Candidates will crisscross the nation rallying the crowd and pledging to make bold action. Despite the well groomed faces and tailored suits, we won’t see the backstabbing and promises that candidates need to get elected.  George Clooney’s new film, The Ides of March, takes aim at politicians and the treachery behind the scenes.  This loosely true life political drama was adapted from a play, Farragut North, scripted by a former Howard Dean aid.

Ides, marks Ryan Gosling’s third staring role of the year.  Gosling plays Stephen Meyers, a young but experienced junior campaign manager for Mike Morris (George Clooney). While campaigning in the battle ground state of Ohio, problems begin to arise.  Morris’ senior campaign manger, Paul Zara (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) tries to secure a crucial delegate vote in Senator Pullman (Jeffery Wright) but can only do so if Morris offers him a cabinet position.  It becomes clear early on that the candidate Clooney is portraying had been shaped by his own political ideologies.  Continue reading →

It is not an unlikely story in Hollywood.  Ailing relationship suffers from a lack of excitement results in an affair.  Crazy, Stupid, Love deviates from this path when Cal Weaver (Steve Carrell) finds himself humiliated and lonely at a singles bar.  Cal’s complete opposite, an outgoing ladies man named Jacob Palmer (Ryan Gosling), takes pity and pulls Cal under his wing.  Jacob refines Cal and guides him in his relationships with his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore) and his one night stand, Kate (Marisa Tomei).  Along the way Cal struggles with his lovestruck son while Jacob falls in love for the first time.

The off brand type of comedy found in Crazy, Stupid, Love has extended moments of burst out loud laughing but was laced with very bizarre and cringe worthy awkwardness.  One scene comes to mind when Cal is wooing a women.  Using his personal type of humor found in The Office and 40 Year Old Virgin, Cal makes less than romantic passes at Kate.  When they finally get home to his apartment their dynamic shifts from strange couple to kinky weirdness. Continue reading →