Focus (2015)

Focus is a heist movie, or rather a heists movie.  Unlike a typical movie that culminates in one big heist, this movie has two smaller ones.  As a consequence, there is no climax.  In such a slick movie called Focus, I was expecting a big twist at the end that I would have noticed if I had focused more.  This was not the case.  There is a twist, but it is by no means monumental.  Overall, I was disappointed by the ending.  It felt small for the glamour of the rest of the film.  The final heist was not nearly as clever as the first one. I appreciated the small twist of the first one, but expected more on the last.  The whole movie has a really sleek feel.  Will Smith and Margot Robbie are both very glamorous, kind of funny too.  There are times when I genuinely laughed, but other times when the film takes itself too seriously in contrast.  

Top Five (2014)

In Chris Rock's best and boldest movie to date, he channels comedy master Woody Allen, even naming his protagonist after him.  Like Allen, Rock stars in, writes, and directs Top Five.  It is an indie-type film that stars a big name at the helm and Rock's film is packed with small cameos from a multitude of stars, some who play themselves.  Rock plays a comedian who has found great success in his cheap comedies (as a voice in a bear suit--analogous to his voice-over work as the zebra from the blockbuster series Madagascar?), but has tired of them and wishes to be taken more seriously.  This is very much the same dilemma that Tracy Jordan faces in 30 Rock; Tracy Morgan has a hilarious cameo as well. And much like Birdman, this is a case of art imitating life imitating art, in which Rock plays a version of himself searching for new success.  However, while his in-the-movie film Uprize is panned, Top Five deserves praise.

Chris Rock and Rosario Dawson are excellent.  They walk around New York chatting (as one does in a Woody Allen film) about just about everything. All of the cameos are brilliantly funny.  Rock muses about comedy, his art (as Allen likes to do).  There are a lot of funny moments, but perhaps he is at his best in his natural habitat on stage, doing stand up, as his character fittingly does.  But this is not just a comedy, there is a nice balance of drama and a twist that I didn't see coming.

The opening scene is a fast-paced, hilarious, back-and-forth between them about race.  This is unmistakably a "black movie" (the same way that Allen's films are "white movies"), but it is not explicitly about race.  They talk about race, and Rock penned a guest column in the Hollywood Reporter about blacks in Hollywood when the film was released.   Now for the big question, why is it called Top Five?  In the movie, the characters ask each other to name their top five hip-hop artists, like a party game.  It recurs, but is not central to the movie.  But hip hop is at the core of Rock's generation of black culture.  In an interview in the New York Times, Questlove said the co-star of the is the "hip-hop midlife crisis."  Hip hop is important, and it is an underlying theme that is not primary but constantly in the background.  

The Missing Picture (L'Image Manquante) (2013)

This documentary film, recounting the director's experience in the Cambodian genocide, is inventive, original, innovative, and at the same time, simple.  This movie is Rithy Panh's artistic outlet in his midlife crisis.  At the age of 50, Panh reflects on his childhood experience under the Pol Pot regime.  At its core, this is his love letter to his art, film--it opens in a room full of burned film canisters. The only footage available from the period is propaganda, which was the only permitted use of cameras.  But to tell the real story, the story that Panh lived, Panh has to create his own images to fill in the void of the eponymous Missing Picture.  He does this by sculpting a multitude of carefully crafted clay figures, constructing still dioramas.  The contrast of the innocent, child-like sculptures versus the atrocities of the regime is devastating. These constructed images are imbued with a sense of reality and authority.  The best scenes are those that integrate the figurines into the actual footage. Panh's story is beautifully told through clear first person narration, with well placed pauses for dramatic effect.  Panh brilliantly uses his art to confront this dark time in history.

Two Days, One Night (Deux Jours, Une Nuit) (2014)

The idea is simple and relevant in our time of economic recession. A blue-collar worker suffers a nervous breakdown and takes time off work, after which her management discovers that it doesn't need her.  She is to be laid off unless she can convince her coworkers to forgo their bonuses.  Marion Cotillard plays Sandra, the conflicted woman, desperate to keep her job but ashamed to beg and at times defeatist, balancing hopefulness and hopelessness beautifully. She masterfully gives the audience raw emotion.  These emotions range from tearful elation when she convinces one of her coworkers to vote for her to depressing sleepwalking.  Cotillard is outstanding in any language and was well deserving of her Oscar nomination. The film is engaging throughout.  There is a brilliant twist at the end that both highlights cruelty and humanity, both themes that permeate the whole film.  Finally in the end, one wins out.

The Skeleton Twins (2014)

Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader play two suicidal siblings and breath comedy into a movie that is otherwise very depressing.  It is a refreshingly dark turn from the Bridesmaids-era Wiig.  The former SNL cast mates are at their best when they are alone on screen, seemingly improvising.  They feed off of each other, and sometimes they are on the verge of breaking--acceptable on SNL but usually not elsewhere, though it undeniably works with these two.  The most fun scene is a straight-forward lip syncing scene to Starship's "Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now."  It's simple, but Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig make it hilarious.  It is best when SNL alumni team up to make comedy...could Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader be the next Amy and Tina?

Into the Woods (2014)

I thoroughly enjoyed Disney's adaptation of this Sondheim classic. The music and lyrics are so complex, and hauntingly beautiful.  My favorite is when the characters sing different lyrics and melodies simultaneously, the counterpoint that Sondheim is so good at.  His characters think out loud in natural rhythmic speech.  The opening sequence (Prologue) introducing all of the characters is masterful with each character passing on the infectious theme to the next.  An extravagant production design realistically recreates a dark and creepy wood.  Along with Colleen Atwood's Oscar-nominated costume design, the audience is transported to a fantasy world.

Meryl Streep finally broke her own rule of never playing a witch to join Into the Woods.  She has a much better platform to show off her singing chops than with ABBA's Mamma Mia.  Streep actually has a very good voice; case in point "Children Will Listen." Emily Blunt also has an excellent singing voice as the Baker's Wife.  They are emotional, comedic, and most of all musical.

The story has depth, an existentialist message that might go over the head of a Disney-aged audience, but the original musical is not intended for children.  There are themes of morality and parental relationships.  The story is cleverly told through a clever combination of classic fairy tales reimagined.  This is what makes a good musical: a clever idea, good music, good acting and a thought-provoking story.

Ida (2013)

This movie is shot in black and white and a 1:33 frame to evoke an old film from the 1960s.  It almost makes it feel like the film was made in the time period it depicts.  This gives the viewer a sense of postwar Poland.  There are such long pauses that the film is almost silent.  It is admittedly a bit slow, but this adds to the dreary, eerie post-war atmosphere.  The awkward, off-center framing makes the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable.

The movie "discusses" a dark time in Polish history.  I say "discusses" because it never mentions the keywords "Holocaust," "Stalin," or "Occupation."  It is not about what is said, but what the film implies.  Agata Kulesza's Wanda does an excellent job at gesturing her statements as opposed to vocalizing them.  And Ida's silences speak as much as her words.  Ida and Wanda are perfect foils, and their time spent together, two unlikely road trip mates, affect them both greatly.   As far as road trip movies go, this one is highly unconventional.  It brings depth, poignancy, and reflection to a serious black eye in Polish history.