Super 8 (2011): written and directed by J.J. Abrams; starring Jeff Courtney (Joe Lamb), Ryan Lee (Cary), Zach Mills (Preston), Riley Griffiths (Charlie), Kyle Chandler (Deputy Lamb), Ron Eldard (Louis Dainard), and Elle Fanning (Alice Dainard): Lightweight Spielberg homage from J.J. Abrams comes with the approval and cooperation of Spielberg himself. It's a lot like ET gene-spliced with Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goonies, and the South Park 'dream' episode in which the kids are trapped on a bus by a monster. Elle Fanning is distractingly wan and emaciated throughout. The kids are underwritten and overdetermined and not all that appealing. Not a terrible film, but so much of a pastiche it hardly seems to exist. Lightly recommended.
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017): written and directed by Martin McDonagh; starring Frances McDormand (Mildred), Sam Rockwell (Dixon), and Woody Harrelson (Willoughby): Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell get lots of pithy dialogue and violent moments to earn their Best Acting Oscars (Lead Female and Supporting Actor, respectively) in this pungent NuTarantino offering from writer-director Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, 7 Psychopaths). It's not as good as you might expect from the awards, but it's certainly an actor's showcase of a certain sort. Recommended.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947): adapted by Philip Rapp, Everett Freeman, and Ken Englund from the story by James Thurber; directed by Norman Z. McLeod; starring Danny Kaye (Walter Mitty), Virginia Mayo (Osalind van Hoorn), Boris Karloff (Dr. Hugo Hollingshead), Fay Bainter (Walter's Mother), Ann Rutherford (Walter's Fiancee), and Thurston Hall (Bruce Pierce): A special edition that removes Danny Kaye's bafflingly popular patter songs from this movie would be super. James Thurber's short-short story gets pulled and twisted like taffy to accommodate a romantic plot involving Danny Kaye and Virginia Mayo. The movie's a lot of fun except for those patter songs. Boris Karloff is a delight as a menacing 'doctor.' Recommended.
Living in Oblivion (1995): written and directed by Tom DiCillo; starring Steve Buscemi (Nick Reve), Catherine Keener (Nicole Springer), Dermot Mulroney (Wolf), Danielle von Zerneck (Wanda), James Le Gros (Chad Palomino), Rica Martens (Cora), Peter Dinklage (Tito), and Kevin Corrigan (Assistant Camera): Witty look at Indy film-making remains fresh and exciting more than 20 years after its release. Everyone is good. The character of 'Chad Palamino' is not based on Brad Pitt, apparently, despite decades of rumors, but another young actor of 1995 whom writer-director Tom DiCillo refuses to name. Johnny Depp, maybe? A young Peter Dinklage has a show-stopper of a rant about the preponderance of dwarves in movie dream sequences. Highly recommended.
Emma (1996): adapted from the Jane Austen novel and directed by Douglas McGrath; starring Gwyneth Paltrow (Emma), Greta Scacchi (Mrs. Weston), Alan Cumming (Mr. Elton), Sophie Thompson (Miss Bates), Phyllida Law (Mrs. Bates), Jeremy Northam (Mr. Knightley), Toni Collette (Harriet Smith), and Ewan McGregor (Frank Churchill): In and around the fictional English village of Highbury and the surrounding estates, romance is blooming in the second decade of the 19th century. Or at least it's brewing inside 21-year-old busybody matchmaker Emma's head. Gwyneth Paltrow is very sparkly and glowy as Emma, while the supporting cast is solid and witty throughout. Well, maybe except for Ewan McGregor, hot off Trainspotting. McGregor admitted later that the part was outside his range and not helped by a terrible wig. Oh, well. Recommended.
Moonrise Kingdom: written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola; directed by Wes Anderson; starring Jared Gilman (Sam Shakusky), Kara Hayward (Suzy Bishop), Bruce Willis (Captain Sharp), Edward Norton (Scout Master Ward), Bill Murray (Walt Bishop), Frances McDormand (Laura Bishop), and Bob Balaban (Narrator) (2012): Another one of Wes Anderson's tiny, nearly perfect miniatures, quirky as usual and humane.
The love of 12-year-olds Sam Shakusky and Suzy Bishop leads them to run away from home. Well, he runs away from his Khaki Scout Troop. But all this is happening on one of the small, rural islands near New York (so far as I can tell, anyway) in the mid-1960's, and there's a major storm rolling in.
The major players are Sam, an orphan whose foster family intends to send him back to Social Services; Suzy, a depressed outsider with a great love of reading and mascara; Police Captain Sharp, a lonely bachelor having an affair with Suzy's mother, played by Frances McDormand; Walt Bishop, played by Bill Murray in mostly buttoned-down mode (though when he gets really angry, he goes outside with a bottle of booze and chops down a tree); the Scout Troop who mostly view Sam as an annoying outsider; and Scout Master Ward, a math teacher who has poured all his energies and enthusiasm into scouting.
There's also a scouting jamboree taking place on a nearby island, Bob Balaban as the narrator, a dog named Snoopy, and a whole lot of canoeing and hiking and tent-pitching. Harvey Keitel makes something of a surprise appearance as the Head Scout, while Tilda Swinton appears as an officious Social Services employee who repeatedly refers to herself only as Social Services.
The whole thing plays out in that vaguely bemused Wes Anderson fashion. There are several big laughs, but the real point of these movies seems to always be the small ways in which the strangeness of the human condition is illuminated, generally without narrative judgment. There will be a climax of sorts, and some things will get resolved, but others will not be resolved. The kids, who have to carry a lot of the movie on their own, are real charmers, possessed of the deadpan seriousness that perhaps only teenagers can muster about themselves and their primary place in the world.
Much of the movie is shot in the autumnal glow of nostalgia or a Norman Rockwell painting, occasionally lit by lightning or obscured by rain. Most everyone turns out to be a decent person in the end, flaws and all. Nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar. Recommended.
