The Artist

I have to admit, my entire experience with silent movies consists of maybe two Charlie Chaplin films when I was a kid (thanks to my dad) and a short segment of the silent epic Birth of a Nation in college. As a proud member of Generation Y, these types of films seem more foreign to me than, well, foreign films, because let’s face it, we’re loud. Think about how often in a day you can actually hear silence. I can barely take a nap without having a fan on in the background! Still, silent films aren’t completely devoid of entertainment. They’re built for laughs, with their exaggerated characters and melodramatic plots. It’s slapstick comedy slapped on the big screen. Nobody went to a silent film to have a bad time.

For a film like The Artist to revive that era of filmmaking had to be the marketing quagmire of the century. Here’s how that conversation probably went in the board room:

Michel Hazanavicius: “Hey, I want to make a movie in black and white!”

Producers: “Oh. Well, okay, it worked out well for Good Night and Good Luck…”

Michel: “And it’ll be a silent picture.”

Producers: “Oh…are there going to be subtitles…?”

Michel: “Better! Dialogue cards!”

Producers: “You can have ten dollars.”

In spite of overwhelming odds, The Artist is every bit as charming as you could hope it to be. Michel Hazanavicius nails the look and feel of a traditional silent film to the point where it seems unbelievable it was made in the new millennium.

The Descendants

Let me begin by saying that it’s worth watching this movie just to see George Clooney running in flip-flops. It comes after one particularly painful revelation out of the many he’ll endure throughout the movie, and it’s hilarious. The Descendants is full of moments like this, and while they might seem irreverent in light of the circumstances, they’re necessary to take Alexander Payne’s from a sobby quagmire to an honest drama about a family wading through a crisis.

Let’s set the scene: Matt King’s (George Clooney) family are the descendants of Princess Lili’uokalani and the sole owners of one of the last undeveloped land tracts in Hawaii. His wife lies in a coma after a near tragic boating accident. Out of their frustrated marriage is borne two daughters, one a free-spirited but troubled youngster, the other a sassy, sanctimonious teenager. On top of worrying about his wife and daughters, he has a measly week to decide whether or not to sell the land that’s been in his family for generations. Oh, and (spoiler alert) he’s about to find out that his wife was having an affair before her accident.

Sounds like a plotline more beleaguered than The Hours, yet this is when the flip-flop running begins, and it initiates an adventure that, before movie’s end, will rip his family apart and sew it back together again.

I’ve always felt that the best comedies are interspersed with drama, and the best dramas peppered with comedy. At the very least, when the drama gets too heavy or the punch lines start to fizzle, the audience has something different to look forward to. Juno and Steel Magnolias are two such films that knew how to capitalize on the trade-off, and The Descendants could be even better. Consider the scene where Matt goes to tell his in-laws that their daughter is probably not going to come out of the coma. It’s heartbreaking to watch an old man tough as a drill sergeant cry, but then Sid (a kind-hearted doofus along for the ride) makes a wisecrack about his wife and he says, “I’m gonna hit you.” And then he does. Later, after tracking down his wife’s would-be lover, Matt cases out his beach house about as stealthily as Inspector Clouseau from the Pink Panther movies. Oh, and the second act climax has a “Holy crap” moment at the beach house well worth the laughs it gets, but I won’t “kiss and tell.”

That isn’t to say that the film doesn’t take its premise seriously. George Clooney is believable as a man worn down by the weight of his many responsibilities, and Shailene Woodley gives more than a modest performance as his sarcastic but deeply wounded daughter.

Becky Solo Review: Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey



Downton Abbey is every period film lover’s ultimate dream for a new show to become addicted to. If you are not watching it……THAT IS SHAMEFUL. In all seriousness though, it is not too late to get caught up. Most people have Netflix accounts nowadays, and if you don’t—here it comes again—THAT IS SHAMEFUL, and the first season is on there while the second is still available for viewing on the following Masterpiece Classic web site: Downton Abbey

While this show comes highly recommended by moi, I would feel awful if I ruined any details for upcoming viewers (which I’m confident in my powers of persuasion to convert people into die-hard fans). With that being said, I will try to give a brief synopsis of the show followed by a character breakdown to intrigue and motivate potential viewers.

Masterpiece Classic: Downton Abbey is a historical look into the lives of an aristocratic family and their servants in 18^th century England. Season 1 sets up the family dynamic as well as the differences between the classes. The ensemble cast and writers do an amazing job with splitting and intertwining the complex relationships between the family members and servants. For example, one of the many plot points raging upstairs involves Lord Grantham’s day-to-day dealings with his three girls while coming to terms with the Downton inheritance unexpectedly passing to Matthew Crawley after his heir dies tragically upon the Titanic. Downstairs, we are thrust into the roles of the servants and their intimate connections with members of the Crawleys, who are not only their employers but also their friends. You take all this in and more within the first episode.  

Now for fans who have already become obsessed, I will try to express my feelings about the characters I cannot stand, the ones I love to hate and the ones that have my heart.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I

As if the holiday weren’t sappy enough, Valentine’s Day saw the release of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I on DVD. And since people seem to love nothing better than a good Twilight thumping, it seemed like the obvious choice for a first review.

Well, can I just say that it’s been a long journey of more skin-shimmering, lip chewing and shirtless forest-running than a tween with a Kindle can handle to get to this most tender of moments, the wedding of Bella and Edward. The night before, Edward spends an evening of good clean animal slaughtering with the Cullen bros (sounds like a sweet bachelor party to me) and Bella dreams of slaughtering all their wedding guests in a moment of vampiric ecstasy. Yep, they’re a match made in heaven. All this foreboding couldn’t quell true love, though, and under a canopy of hanging flowers (in Washington??) Bella meets to wed her undead beau.

Okay. This is the same undead beau who in the first book/film had a penchant for lurking in Bella’s bedroom as she slept unawares. Uh-huh. Remember Elizabeth Smart, the little girl who was kidnapped several years ago and then subsequently forced to marry her kidnapper? I imagine Twilight as something like this. I keep waiting for the scene when Bella bolts for Siberia and tells the locals how she, fearing for her life, ingratiated herself with the Cullens while waiting for the opportune moment to escape.

Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part I

My on again-off again relationship to the phenomenon that is Twilight!

Then you will become familiar with John’s (my husband's) LIMITED knowledge of the Twilight universe via the small snippets I have made him consume with me over the past four years.  

I find myself slightly embarrassed when I go into FYE and am bombarded by a large display of Twilight memorabilia….aka a music box, water bottle (with your choice of Edward or Jacob’s bod), and a random brooch. Now, as I say this the two-disc Breaking Dawn movie pack was beckoning me to buy it. Now, I would have never bought one such memorabilia, but I will say that at 4:00 in the morning this past Black Friday extravaganza, I was incredibly close to buying the cardboard standup of Edward while planning all the places I could hide it in the apartment to witness John’s mental breakdown once he found it. (The shower was going to be the premiere place to commence the great fright of 2011.)

While I fight my urge to become an obsessed fan, I will proudly say I have been in attendance for all four Twilight midnight premieres, but I have a love/hate relationship with this franchise.

Book Comments

It was a wonderful book series to read in college. I have had countless conversations with friends about the qualities in both Edward and Jacob (e.g. Edward is a controlling voyeur while Jacob is an immature douche.) The books were great when you didn’t dwell on any particular details.Biggest Sham Detail: Eclipse is my favorite book out of the four. I feel like Stephenie Meyer finally took the plunge to put the Team Edward/Team Jacob quarrel to rest for good. However, the way she did it was ridiculous and makes me angry! John and I have had several conversations about fantasy fiction and how it works best when authors write fantastical storylines such as the werewolf and vampire phenomenon but it HAS TO BE based on believable human emotion and behavior. The problem I have with this is Stephenie Meyer doesn’t hold to this principle one iota.

Welcome!

Check out those beautiful faces to your left and right, your entertainment hosts from here on out. Awww, aren't they...well, hateful looking. Who could guess behind those sneers lies a happy newlywed couple. And the only things we love (almost) as much as each other are movies, books, TV and music! When a local video store closed a couple of years ago, we broke down and bought almost a hundred movies. Yeah, we don't get out much. But we do have serious opinions about the movies and shows we watch, so why not share our playful banter with the world? Let the reviews begin!!

-John and Becky