Mini Series Review: Hatfields & McCoys

"Hatfields & McCoys"

Released May 2012

History Channel Mini-Series

It's been a good 6 months since I posted (and I've seen a lot of movies and read a few books in that time). I've neglected this side project because I've been utterly distracted by being pregnant. But I had to revive the project for a recent viewing that blew me away.

The Hatfields and the McCoys. A mini-series. That odd forum found somewhere between movie and tv show. TV mini-series are often mediocre, but they have the potential to be extraordinary. Mostly this is because the director has the opportunity to do more because of the time allotted. It's not constrained to a  2 hour movie timeframe so you have more time to develop characters. Yet, it's not a tv show so you don't have to stretch out a story longer than necessary for the sake of renewal and ratings.

I really enjoyed this mini-series. It aired on the history channel so I felt it had more credibility even though obviously they took some artistic liberties. I've never been a big Kevin Costner fan but I really liked him in this role and overall I thought the acting was great. As a Southerner, I am often annoyed by fake Southern accents. Yet, the dialect and accents found in this movie were quite accurate to me. The Civil War references, the late 1800s class struggle and life...all seemed pretty well researched as well. I was completely sucked into the feud and the lives of the characters and not distracted by blaring inaccuracies.

The series explored questions of justice, loyalty, family, class, faith, and general right and wrong. Neither family was really enduring. It was hard to root for a side. Both families had characters to love and characters to despise. It was truly a tumultuous battle.

I related a lot to the issue of family loyalty. In the South, family loyalty is still a big deal even today. Blood is thicker than any other tie and there's a tendency to side with family above all other relationships, including marriage. I don't know if this is healthy but I get the culture and the torn-ness that comes with choosing whats right versus what's expected.

All in all, very enjoyable.

Movie Review: The Hunger Games

"The Hunger Games"

Released March 2012

Directed by: Gary Ross

Alright, it's been months since I did a real review and I've been anticipating this movie for quite some time---so lets do this. I'm almost a little disappointed by all the hype it's gotten (3rd best opening weekend ever) because with that comes a lot of opinions and most people have a hard time being neutral. But lets get on with it... 

First, the books. I read them months ago (actually before I knew they were making movies). I do not think that Suzanne Collins is the best writer ever, but I think the concept was good and I enjoyed reading them. They were definitely addicting. I am a really big fan of anything post apocalyptic or dystopian. That's not everyone's cup of tea, so I'm actually a little surprised at how popular the movie has been (and not surprised at the people appalled at the concept). 

I like books and film equally and recognize that they are different art forms. A book cannot be translated to screen without losing some details. Otherwise it would be 6 hours long at least. A good movie will capture the spirit of the book, cut the things that can be cut and keep the things that are important all while keeping the integrity of the story intact. It's difficult, but it can be done. I've never been one to whine about the movie changing too much from the book if the movie is done well. Although there are still some who are upset about the cuts made for this film, I think they did an excellent job translating it to screen. And actually, the movie may be better than the book (gasp!) in a lot of ways. I say that because Suzanne Collins is straight out of Hollywood, not academia. This is her forte, and it shows. It's one of the best adaptions I've seen and I'm suspicious that she had a movie in mind the entire time she was penning the book.

The choices for the actors I think overall were good. The only one I was truly skeptical about going in was Cinna. I don't think they really developed his character enough for me to have strong feelings about the choice one way or another (which is too bad because he's one of my favorite characters in the book), but I didn't find the choice distracting. The only character I didn't like the choice of actor was Cato...and that's really only because he was a terrible actor. The rest of the acting was decent I thought.

I'm not really sure what I'd have thought about it had I not read the books. I've heard some people say that there wasn't enough character development or that it was predictable. I didn't feel that way, but then again I already knew what was going to happen and I knew what was going on in the heads of the characters. 

The production of the film was so much better than expected. Really great camera angles and style choices. It didn't feel cheesy to me (and it was definitely at risk), I thought they did a great job keeping the violence from being too gorey while still having the impact needed to convey the emotion and disgust of it all.

Just like with anything popular, there are going to be people obsessed with this series, and people who hate it just because people are obsessed with it. There will also be the camps who feel the whole premise is degrading and violent...and people who feel it wasn't violent enough. I've seen mostly positive reviews, and of course some "what are you people thinking, it sucked!" but that's the nature of our culture and unsurprising. 

For me, it was a success. I liked the movie. I thought they did a great job. I'm not sure the next two will be as good since I think the books/stories get weaker as they go, but for this film alone---well done. Here's hoping the hype doesn't keep people from enjoying it or draw the wrong people in to see it.

Oscar Sunday 2012

Wow, it's been months since I've posted and I've seen quite a few films in that time. Time to resurrect this blog for a recap of this years Academy Awards. Personally I love the Oscars. I adore film as an art and I enjoy awards shows. There are obviously some negative aspects about what we're celebrating and all of the excess, but I do enjoy the night each year.

First off, Billy Crystal hosting was a success. Personally I've never cared who hosted. I am watching it because I care about the films and who wins and the commentary in between is neither here nor there for me. But the average viewer doesn't not share my interest. The Oscars are notoriously one of the worst rated television nights of the year and the hosts in the last at least 5 years have been getting a lot of flack for poor ratings. Personally, I don't think they've been all that bad. I just think the average movie goer isn't interested in the films represented. But that being said, Billy Crystal reminded me that it can be done right. Entertaining, funny, and not too forced overall. He really is the best at Oscar hosting.

Overall, as usual, I'm pleased. There are always movies and actors I feel get overlooked but for the most part some of the greatest movies are recognized.

I was not at all surprised to see Octavia Spencer win Support Actress..she was the clear favorite.

I think Bryce Dallas Howard's role in The Help was phenominal. I've never been more impressed with her and I think she deserved a nomination just as much if not more than her four co-stars.

I think there were some overlooked movies this year (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Super 8, etc) that were great and I'm surprised Bridemaids got so much hype overall.

No Pixar movies nominated this year...the clear favorite in animation. The ones nominated were all mediocre to me.

I know that the Kodak Theater is not big enough to hold every star every year and that the ones there are usually connected to the films nominated in some way, but it still feels incomplete when I notice faces aren't there (Kate, Leo, Nicole, Johnny, etc) that I come to expect to see when big stars get together.

Some people were upset about Meryl Streep's win. I admit I was a little surprised (not shocked) because there were a lot of really good actresses nominated. But I really had no idea who'd take home the Oscar. That being said, though the movie overall wasn't very successful, Meryl completely nailed the part of Margaret Thatcher. When people get upset that mediocre movies win in categories like supporting actor or sound editing---it annoys me. It's not Best Picture. It's not about the film overall. It's about the individual performances and work and that is exactly how it should be judged. Both Meryl and Michelle did great jobs at capturing the person they were playing even though the films themselves were not that great. The same can be said for movies like Harry Potter and Transformers that overall might not be Oscar material, but aspects like sound editing and visual effects absolutely are.

Hugo deserved to win the visual categories. I liked the movie in general and liked the twist from Scorsese, one of my all time favorite Directors. I thought the film dragged a bit, but visually it was stunning. Those are definitely the categories it should have won in.

I generally don't understand when Makeup wins in a period film over fantasy because it just doesn't seem as hard to do makeup for Queen Elizabeth as it does to make prosthetics and fantasy characters come to life. But I think in this case it was one of those...honoring one of the oldest members of the field. Often at the Oscars I feel artists get "gipped" the year they deserved to win because it just happened to fall in the same year as an Oscar favorite (for instance, Leonardo Dicaprio has never won and I think his Howard Hughs would have taken it any year except the year he was nominated when everything went to Ray) so later on they'll throw that artist a bone and give them an award for film that wasn't their best (see Martin Scorsese winning for The Departed. A good film, but not his best. He was just long overdue for an Oscar).

John Williams never seems to win lately, but he's bound to get a lifetime achievement award at some point. He's the most famous composer for film and he's getting old. He's not going to around too much longer friends.

I love Bret McKenzie.


In closing, I haven't seen The Artist yet so I can't say whether or not I think it deserved to be the Oscar favorite and Best Picture winner this year. I do think what I've seen of Jean Dujardin's performance was great, but overall...hard to say with so many other great movies nominated.

Movie Review: The Films of 2011

Well, since I only started this review blog a few months ago and have only done a few reviews, I thought it would be appropriate to talk about what happened in 2011 and what to look forward to in 2012 (which will be a separate post).

Though I did a lot of reading in 2011, reading is not necessarily something I do "by the year." Very few of my 'reads' this year were actually published in 2011. That's not to say that I didn't pick up the new books in a few series or grabbed copies of the books everyone was abuzz about, but since music and reading come to me from all decades (and I have a lot of gaps to fill) this post will focus on film. Film is something I enjoy keeping up with and it's not uncommon for me to anticipate a movie long before the trailer is released.

There are already many great blogs and articles out there talking about the best films of 2011. I'd recommend this list if you appreciate the more artistic films and this list if you fall somewhere in the middle of artistic and commercial. Both of these writers (and others) have already done a fine job of giving a summary for the year and this post is not an attempt to duplicate that or to give a comprehensive list of everything good for this year. But for me...

I saw a lot of films this year. My personal favorites were Moneyball, Super 8, and Harry Potter and the Dealthy Hallows: Part II. 


Hugo, One Day and Drive remain on my mixed feelings list but I think they are good on an artistic level and worth seeing for yourself.

It was a big year for comic book adaptions with X-Men: First Class, The Green Hornet, The Green Lantern, Thor, and Captain American...all that I saw were entertaining but a bit cheesy as the genre tends to be, though I really enjoyed X-Men and Thor was a favorite off my husband.

My list of "for fun" movies that I very much enjoyed regardless of how commercial they were include Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (which I thought was an improvement on the previous two before it), Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows (more entertaining than the first for me), Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Cowboys & Aliens.

There are always a lot of films I intend to see but don't make it to and I have every intention of getting to all of the following as soon as possible.

Still on my list to see: The Tree of Life, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Captain America, Mission Impossible IV, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Adventures of TinTin, J. Edgar, War Horse, The Help


There were many many other movies released this year (Cars 2, Fast5, Scream 4, Hangover 2, Ides of March, many romantic comedies, Unknown, Arthur, Kung Fu Panda 2, etc.---that just weren't on my priority list of movies to see) and I am also leaving out many movies I did see (such as Transformers, I Am Number 4, Hanna, Breaking Dawn: Part I, Gnomeo and Juliet, Reel Steel, etc.) that I just don't have any strong feelings about or maybe just don't have the energy to write about.

I suppose there were dozens of movies out this past year. There were many that I missed, or ignored altogether. I feel as if I've only scratched the surface here and I will undoubtedly have more to say once the Oscar nominations are released for 2011.

And here I was thinking 2012 was going to be the most epic year ever for movies and in retrospect 2011 was full to the brim with highly anticipated films.

Movie Review: Hugo

"Hugo"

Released November 2011

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Ah, it's been a little while since I posted a review. This is not because I haven't been reading, seeing movies or listening to music. I guess it is just because I haven't felt strongly enough about things to write about them. However, I've been anticipating this movie for quite some time so I felt it couldn't let it go without a quick review.

I wish that I had read the book (The Invention of Huge Cabret by Brian Selznick) ahead of time. I've heard a lot of really wonderful things about it. And it did win the Caldecott. I'm also interested in Wonderstruck, his latest release which is being considered for both the Caldecott and the Newbery. He seems to be an innovative writer/illustrator for Children's literature and I have both books on my list. I usually prefer to read the book before the movie but my intrigue with this movie was less about the book and more about the director.

Martin Scorsese is one of my favorite directors. He's been on the scene since the 1950s and 1960s but started getting more significant recognition in the 1970s. My Scorsese repertoire doesn't begin until 1990 which is the year Goodfellas was released (perhaps his most famous film). Granted I was only 3 years old the year it came out, but I filled the gap in later. In 2002 he released Gangs of New York and I have been faithfully going to the theaters for his works ever since. The Aviator, The Departed, Shutter Island---all favorites of mine. I've also heard great things about Boardwalk Empire, his HBO tv series, and he is currently working on a Frank Sinatra film that I am excited about. All of that to say, I follow his career and I was surprised to see Hugo on his list of projects. 

This movie just did not seem to fit into his usual repertoire. For starters (or maybe the only reason I felt that way) was the fact that it's an adaption of a children's book. Yet the feel of the movie was still very "Scorsese." The movie wasn't at all what I expected, but then, I had nothing to go off of but a few trailers. I love Ben Kingsley and Christopher Lee, and the children were chosen well. It was well-filmed, well-acted, well-directed, and well-written.  Basically, overall it was a success. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see it on the nominations list for the Oscars. That being said, for me it moved very slowly and even dragged a bit. Did I mention that I saw it in 3D? Completely unnecessary (as is the case with most movies in 3D). I guess I feel that while it was a good film, I can't see it appealing to kids. It's a children's book adaption so I feel like it should have had some appeal to children. My fear is that if I got antsy and bored at times, then there's little hope for the kids to stay engaged the entire film.

From a film-makers perspective, it was fantastic. From an entertainment standpoint it both suceeded on some levels and failed on others. Many will enjoy the film, and many will not. I feel that the general populous is not going to embrace Hugo. As for me, I enjoyed it, but probably will not add it to my collection. Still, I can't deny the merit of the work.

Music Review: Odd Soul

Album: Odd Soul

Artist: Mutemath

Released: October 2011

Mutemath's fan base seems to span a lot of very different sorts of people and artists in many different genres. It's probably because they're talented. From song writing, lyrics, and production to an incredible live show---they seem to have the whole package. There is no band that is universally agreed upon to be "good" but Mutemath comes about as close as you can get in this day and age. Talent will always be subjective to the listener and their taste. As for me, I loved this album. I liked their first album and the creativity they exuded in their videos and tours. The second album was a disappointment. But this album, their third, is everything the second should have been. 

The style is different enough from the day to day to peak interest from first listen. The production is excellent. I've very much enjoyed with album, especially their title track "Odd Soul".

I can recommend this album to anyone without preface. That's pretty rare. Definitely check this album out. 

---Noelle

Movie Review: Moneyball

"Moneyball"

Released September 2011

Directed by: Bennett Miller

Bennett Miller doesn't seem to make a lot of movies, but when he does, oh man does he do it right. The only other movie I've seen of his was Capote which was also excellent and also featured Philip Seymour Hoffman. 

I thought Moneyball was an excellent movie, especially for sports fans. It was interesting, filmed well with good acting on the part of Pitt and Hoffman, and more accurate than most "true story" films tend to be even if it still took some dramatic license. I honestly loved it so I don't have much else to say about it except: Go see it.