Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Little Miss Sunshine is a hilarious feel-good movie. It is unassuming but delightful. Each character is such a character, brought to life by a strong cast. The young Abigail Breslin is brilliant. I found myself genuinely laughing on my redeye flight at approximately 3AM. This was way better than sleeping.

Battle of the Sexes (2017)

This is a fun movie about a sport I love and an iconic American. The importance of Billie Jean King transcends sport (and she is arguably the one of the most important athletes of the 20th century). Her story is interesting, daring and entertaining. The Battle of the Sexes was obviously a big and important event, but the US Open awarded equal prize money the same year to the men's and women's tournaments apparently outside of that context and it would have been useful to include that more directly. A little less of their personal lives would have been fine too. It was kind of long, otherwise they could have included more tennis politics. The movie is quite funny and it boasts a big cast of comedians, even in small roles like Fred Armisen, who has a couple lines and then sits quietly.

Cafe Society (2016)

Café Society is a return to form for Woody Allen after some not-so-great movies in the last few years. It was actually quite reminiscent of some of his earlier work, relying on the same themes and characterizations and brilliant use of his beloved jazz that brought him fame. I could not help but see a little of Woody Allen in Jesse Eisenberg as Bobby. Eisenberg really embodies the neurotic, quirky, fast-talking, exasperated, sarcastic characters that Allen used to write for himself. This was especially apparent in the scene with Parker Posey in which he has an awkward encounter with a hooker. He says everything he's thinking as it comes to him in his high-level lightning-fast thought process. Allen holds nothing back in his dialogue.

All the acting was actually quite memorable for the right reasons, including all of Bobby's very-Jewish family back in the Bronx and a surprisingly adept Steve Carrell playing far away from his iconic character on the office. But of course, Allen is known for his female characters and Kristen Stewart is just superb. In her very first scene, she has just a couple lines of dialogue, but she has this afternoon glow (and smile to match) about her that radiates and holds your attention. And this lighting effect recurs several times for Stewart's character. There are some really great shots in Central Park that are made whole with this effect. She shows so much depth in her facial expressions and delivery that it makes me wonder if I have overlooked her work in the past (though on second thought I don't think there is any redemption for Twilight). She nails both the plain but charming secretary and the elegant society woman.

As for the story, it has been incorrectly marketed as a story about old Hollywood, but I think a majority of the film actually took place in Allen's beloved New York (it is even sort of anti-Hollywood). He doesn't use the words "café society" until Bobby returns to the east coast. In fact, for the first half of the film it seemed as though Bobby would stay in the middle class and not rise to the upper intellectual class that Allen typically writes about.  I think it is Allen narrating the film as well, though I wasn't entirely sure. Much of the plot is actually told to the audience through the narration instead of shown, which is a stylistic choice that works in well-written comedy. Like a classic Woody Allen plot, there is an impossible love triangle. It is delightful and fun. Have we seen it before? Yes, but it is good to see the master of romantic comedy returning to what he does so well.

Now, we're rubbing shoulders with this high society. We walked down the red carpet that the cast did and into the palace at the 11pm screening at Cannes. That was an experience in itself.

The Big Short (2015)

The Big Short succeeds in explaining economic concepts to the average viewer in an accessible way. A Jenga demonstration by Ryan Gosling makes perfect sense. There are hilariously placed cameos by Margot Robbie, Selena Gomez, Anthony Bourdain and economist Richard Thaler. They use analogies to explain economics and break the fourth wall, as do many of the characters. It is like a well-made documentary at some points. The style of the movie is so unconventional that it makes you laugh. The picture freezes to allow the narration come in, and there are rapid cuts of historic/cultural images to show passage of time. The movie nicely balances comedy with drama. Steve Carrell and Brad Pitt bring some conscience to heartless Wall Street.

The movie simultaneously follows three groups who separately short the housing market, depicting the greatest economic collapse of our time from the point of view of the only people who benefited from it.  We watch them as they separately come to the revelation that would cripple the world economy. The ensemble cast is excellent, and I think Steve Carrell does exceptionally well in a role that I would not have picked him for. It falls somewhere in between the ridiculousness of The Office, and the dark drama Foxcatcher. There is nuance in his role as he comes to the realization that we are all doomed.

The film is a searing indictment of the whole system at every level from the banks to the rating agencies to the regulators. It really brings meaning to the phrase "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention" (Portlandia). You root for the protagonists who awaken and bet on the seemingly impossible. But then you realize that their bet is against the American economy, actually the world economy. They could be seen as villains, but they're really not at fault for reading the fine print. But nor are they heroes. There are no heroes in the economic crisis, just varying degrees of villainy. At the end, it all comes together when Carrell comes to the greatest, move devastating and tragic and cynical realization: it's not stupidity, it's not a matter of paying attention, it's a lack of care knowing that that'll get away with it and the less fortunate will suffer for it.

Foxcatcher (2014)

I was looking forward to this highly anticipated movie but was disappointed.  It was slow-paced and dare I say boring.  The characters, especially John DuPont and Mark Schultz, go through extreme transformations; however the movie fails to depict the process of transformation, only showing the before and after with very little transform-ing.   We never get inside the heads of these disturbed characters.  This doesn't make the movie any more difficult to follow, but it certainly makes for some sudden transitions coupled with some awkwardly fast cutaways.

That being said, all three leading men give excellent, gritty, dark and disturbing performances. Steve Carrell is unrecognizable in his breakout dramatic role behind loads of makeup.  Mark Ruffalo is perhaps even better than Carrell.  Some of the best scenes are when Ruffalo as David Schultz coaches his younger brother.  It is in these scenes, such as the silent sparring one, in which we see their relationship in its rawest form.        

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)

This movie is very uniquely Will Ferrell-style comedy.  He assumes the now iconic character of Ron Burgundy and just runs with the ridiculous nonsense.  It is very fast paced, with jokes in rapid succession.  The jokes are not as memorable as those one-liners from the first film,, but many of them hit the nail right on the head thanks to good execution.  The cast has mastered improv techniques and funny-looking facial expressions.  Aside from jokes, the plot is a relevant, clever, and spot-on satire on cable news.   Burgundy finds work at the thinly veiled 24-hour news network.  What do they do when they don't have 24-hours worth of news? He helms the decline of journalism and the rise of car chases and animal videos.  To quote Will Ferrell, "You're welcome, America."