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TIFF14 – My Review

Published September 27, 2014 by lorimuma

I want to start by apologizing for my delay. I have been offline for a better part of September, but I am back now and finally here with my reviews of the movies and events that I saw at TIFF14. I have decided to rank them in order of how I liked them, instead of the order in which I saw them. As most know, I am really only interested in movies with “names” in them, so you want see any Finnish coming of age movie here. I don’t read when I go to the movies!

1) Nightcrawler. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Lou Bloom, a guy who is a loner, borderline thief and overall weirdo . He figures out that he can make easy cash by becoming a “Nightcrawler” Someone who goes to crime scenes or car crashes (preferably before any first responders get to the scene) and film them. Then goes as sells the footage to any news station that will pay for it. In this case its Rene Russo’s last place station The bloodier the better. He becomes obsessed at getting the story and making a name for himself,and will go to almost insane length to do it. He also can talk himself out of any situation or into any situation depending on the need. Jake Gyllenhaal does an amazing job in this movie and I hope he gets some sort of recognition for it. He is creepy, terrifying and left me totally freaked out by his performance.

2)Top Five. This is Chris Rock at his best! Not only is he the director and screenwriter, he also stars. This is not a family comedy. It is  inappropriate , cringe worthy ( a certain scene with Cedric the Entertainer) and a totally hilarious movie. Chris Rock stars as Andre Allen, a stand up comedian and movie star who is in desperate need of a big hit to jump start his career again, all while planning a wedding to a “reality” tv star on her show played by Gabrielle Union. He decides to do an interview with a journalist, played by Rosario Dawson (who has a couple of cringe worthy/ hilarious scenes herself) to help in his re-branding. I have to metion all the great cameos of great comedian in this movie – Kevin Hart, Adam Sandler,Tracy Morgan, Jay Pharaoh, Whoppie and Jerry Seinfeld I am sure that missed some. If you life Chris Rock, and who doesn’t go see this one when it comes out later this year.

3) While We’re Young. This movie it the complete opposite of Nightcrawler’s and more subtle with the humour then Top Five. Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried star in this movie about 2 couples. One are in there 40’s, married, no kids and wondering if they missed out on anything. The other couple are 20 somethings living a sort of hipster life. With the exception of a middle part that dragged a little too long, this movie is enjoyable and very funny. The acting is great and I feel Ben Stiller takes the movie. I am not sure this will win any awards, but its a good Sunday afternoon movie that I highly recommend.

4) Cake. This is Jennifer Aniston’s “I want to win an Oscar” movie, and she is really good. I was even surprised and I love Jennifer Aniston. I will say it right from the start. This is not a feel good movie. It’s depressing. It’s sad and will leave you at the end going “so now what” Don’t watch this movie if you are in a sad mood. It will make it worse. Aniston plays Claire a women who is suffering from chronic pain, due to a horrible car crash we learn. She not only has physical scars, but mental ones as well. I won’t go into that as it is a major plot development in the movie. Her husband left her, her friends don’t know how to help her,her support group kick her out and she is addicted to pain medication. Basically her life sucks. By the end of the movie, is her life any better? Sort of I guess. This is not a movie that you will leave going “I love that movie” no, its a movie that you may think about after and realize that your life is not that bad.

5)The Drop. This was the first movie I saw at TIFF14, and it is also the last movie that James Gandolfini made. Tom Hardy, who not to hard on the eyes, stars in this movie. He plays Bob the bartender, at the bar that his cousin Marv (Gandolfini) owns, well used to own. Now the Chechen mob owns it. The bar serves as the place where the new owners “drop” laundered money. Throw in a Pit Bull that Bob rescues from the garbage of a soon to be love interest and you have an average suspense movie. I would wait to see this on Netflix,it was good, but not amazing.

6) Men, Women & Children. After watching this movie I came to a conclusion. I really like Jason Reitman, however I really don’t love Jason Reitman movies. I may be one of the few people that turned off Juno, thought Up In The Air was overrated and Labour Day was just ok. So why do I continue to go see his movies? I truly have no idea. The movie looked promising, in fact my friends that I saw it with LOVED it. I thought I was more depressing than Cake. It is about how Social Media has destroyed our lives. A married couple feels they are not loved anymore and go searching out for an affair, thanks Ashley Madison! A teenage girl becomes anorexic because she wants some high school football play to like her. Thanks eating disorder blogs. Another mom wants her teen daughter to be a reality star/beauty queen she never was. A teen guy looks at porn too much and sprinkle in some depressed, plays video games too much, mad at the world teens and you want to believe this world we live in has gone completely mad. This movie is just expressing what has been happening since everyone went to high school. Its only the platforms have changed. With a pretty high profile cast, Adam Sandler, Jennifer Gardner, and Judy Greer I am sure this will be nominated for something, but it just was my kind of movie.

7) The Sound and The Fury. This is a James Franco attempt to yet again, write, star and direct a movie. He plays a mentally challenged man who as other reviews have said. Does his best Tropic Thunder impression. Look it up and you will get what I mean. I will spare you the details, but this will be a movie that most people will NEVER see, its not the worst movie, but it will probably end up on Super Channel or some movie channel that nobody watches. The most exciting thing about this movie was that Wayne Gretzky was at the screening? Now why would he be at a James Franco movie. His wife was a producer of it and paid..I mean played the mother in the movie.

That is a wrap of my TIFF movies, overall I was happy with my picks and look forward to seeing some of the other buzzed about movies in the theatre soon.

L

 

Well Done!

Published September 2, 2014 by lorimuma

I was so happy that finally Mindy Kaling is finally getting the long overdo attention she deserves.

Most people will remember her for The Office where she played Kelly Kapoor, but want most don’t know was that she was a writer and producer on that show.

I was also a fan of her book, “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” It’s a great read about her going up in the 80’s and obsessed with pop culture. I can’t wait to read her next instalment that should be coming out later this year.

I recently started watching her show, The Mindy Files with past month on Netflix. I admit I was late to the show,(I have no idea why, but I’ll chalk it up to I didn’t know when it was on.)  Now going into its third year, it has quickly become one of my favorites.

Then to see her make the cover of Flare was a great surprise. For some reason Leah Dunham seems to get the covers as the new “it” girl comedian, but honestly seeing Mindy is quite refreshing.

 

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I can’t wait to read the full interview this week, when Flare is on the newsstand (or on my iPad, which how I will read it)

Well done Flare.