A MOVIE LOVER

If you choose to not believe in the magic, at least do not choose to do so during Christmas and New Year's Eve. These should be magical for any age and any gender - always and forever. Do believe in Santa as long as it's possible, it'd be than easier for you to tell and pass a holiday magic onto your kids later in life. Personally, I believe that if believing in magic - [and in love and romance] - is not present in one's life, this person is pretty much dead. He or she is not longer living fully and hope-fully. That's why I'm a strong advocate for the holiday movies, especially when the plot is all about love, dreams and hopes - even if it's a bit on a cheesy side - it's all good, it's all healthy. The whole premise of such movies is to become more hopeful and optimistic about the future, to forget problems at home and work and to start believing in good and bright again - even if it's just for two hours...

I never had any doubts and/or disillusion about the loneliness of Hollywood. In the glamour, popularity and fans' obsession, one can overlook the fact that those Hollywood stars - [most of them]- are very lonely, very sad people in real life. Most of them don't even have the same 'character' as they portray in the movies, where one sees them making jokes and being fun and witty, etc. As a matter of fact, most often, the Hollywood stars are very sensitive and vulnerable individuals who are surrounded by people, most of whom don't really care about them. Just think of Judy Garland, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe - when in the spotlight, they are beaming and the fans around them are screaming for their attention. Once they are back at home - they are alone, pain-relieving with drugs, dissolving in alcohol and being forgotten by the loved ones.

First of all, If I were Constantin Stanislavski  - [the work on whose Acting Method/System won me an acceptance to apply with the Harvard University in 1999] - I would have left the movie theatre on the first scene... One cannot portray a psychologically ill person by simply freezing in spasms and moving a jaw in all the possible directions. It's not enough to roll one's eyes and start mimicking an ill person. This is exactly what Keira Knightley's character - Sabina Spielrein - did and what almost drove me out of the theatre. I can accept a bad acting, but only in certain movies I usually watch once in a while for the sake of being mindlessly entertained. But Knightley should have known better - not sure why the director didn't notice such a bad acting? She should have studied an ill person - just as Dustin Hoffman did for his part in Rain Man , for which he spent almost a year at a special clinic. She should have spent at least a day or two at a psychiatric...

There's something about an art-house movie - it's honest, it's real, it's applicable to real life, it's natural, it just touches heart, soul and mind. This is the kind of a movie I'd prefer over any blockbuster with special effects, colorful scenery, beautiful actors... But I've already said that many times before, that's why more often I do reviews of independent, foreign and/or art-house films. Yes, I'm being a bit subjective to it. And, of course, there are exceptions to the rules - sometimes those films end up to be too 'artsy', too far from the action plan on how to apply an art form of a film to the reality. Sometimes they are just too 'weird' to be taken both as a life lesson and as a pure entertainment. In this case, although, the film Like Crazy did serve the purpose of bringing real life scenario - or what might happen to everyone in this life - to a film.

Do not let the name of the movie fool you - it's not a sci-fiction. But at moments I wish it was. The characters do engage in certain super-natural tricks to stop the time - like controlling ocean tides and moon. The cat in movie does talk. And a t-shirt - a safety blanket for a 'her' character - is capable to crawl. Described as a 'cute comedy', some of the film critics are too far from the reality to realize that there is nothing cute about this movie. It's a rather sad slow film that features a couple, who are far from normal. They are, actually, schizophrenic and I wish the audience did see the fact that what the characters say and do - can not be explained, but rather studied by the likes of Sigmund Freud and Nancy Andreasen - they are the perfect 'cases' for the psychiatrists to study.  Please watch the trailer before reading further, the review would make more sense to you then.

The film "Friends with Benefits" , or FWB as we've been casually abbreviating the "relationship" that became a prominent part of the 21st Century ,ended up to be too predictable. It's the kind of movie that everyone knows in the first 5 min how it's gonna end - because, as most of us - adults, know - friends with benefits either do NOT work or they DO work. Friends with benefits either become strangers or they become - a couple. There is no perfect "middle", as much as many of you out there hope it to be. This "relationship" has become to exist in our vocabulary not long ago - most likely at the same time as the slogan "Make love, not war" was created.

"Vincent Will Meer" stands for "Vincent Wants to Sea" , which in my opinion, first of all, could use an action verb in the title of the movie - perhaps "go" or "see"? Germans have been very, very good filmmakers in the past few years. Aside from the Deutschen black and white films, like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), they've been known for solid films - although, during Nazi times, the filmmakers were too occupied shooting documentaries about Hitler...

I must admit, there are certain actors on this planet, whose films I would see regardless of a plot and/or level of my tolerance for a disguise. It does not matter if these actors would be eating vomit or have sex with a goat - I just know that not matter what they'd do in a movie, they'd do it it superbly. Among such actors - the actors, whose work I greatly admire - are Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Cate Blanchet, and Tom Hanks. Tom Hanks was one of the reasons I went to see Larry Crowne , and not on an opening night, not even on the next day - due to the fact that I have a pretty good natural intuition for a good vs. bad movie. I felt  from the very first day of its promotion that this movie would not live up to the hype. And it didn't, even despite the fact that it had Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks in it - ones of the most respected, great actors working in Hollywood today. Their acting couldn't even save the poorly-written, cheesy plot.

There is not a better way to feel good about the national traditional press than seeing what's happening at one of the most prominent respected newspaper in the country. There is not a better way for a journalist to feel good about his/her job than seeing what goes into a real hard-core journalistic work at a newspaper that's "produced" some of the best journalists in the country. If you agree, than you, as myself, looked forward to the release of "Page One: Inside The New York Times" - a documentary about the newspaper and the people who put it together.

Don't blame him for wanting to be in front of the people. It's his nature. He was born to do stand-up, even when he's soaking wet, giving autographs, and answering to the press - as much as he is complaining about of all the attention and overwhelming love from his fans, Conan O'Brian loves it! The documentary "Conan O'Brian Can't Stop" reveals the true nature and personality of the popular late night talk-show host Conan O'Brian with all the good, bad and the ugly. For the ones who does not know, last year Conan O'Brian, promoted to take the spot of the no less popular talk-host J ay Leno , who retired to a different time slot, was then fired by NBC because of ceasing ratings. O'Brian took a $45 million cut and agreed not to appear on TV for six months, while Jay Leno resumed his former time slot position of late night talk-host of 'The Tonight Show'.

I finally saw it - the film "Beginners", just in time to beat the crowd that has been just finishing up seeing Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” – the latest melodrama from the director who refuses to do any main stream blockbusters and staying true to the old school cinematography. (The show has been solidly sold out for the past two weeks in DC….)

When I walked in the E Street Cinema today to see a movie, I had two choices - to see The Trip or The Beginners, both movies received raving reviews from the American movie critics. So, when I have a choice of two, I usually get a second opinion - from the guys at the register, who, sometimes, see a movie before anyone else does in the city. This is what they said: "The Beginners is a good movie, very funny...and there is a talking dog in the movie..." "But The Trip is even better..." And that made up my mind and I went to see The Trip and.... I've made a great decision. First of all, I must admit, I'm a big fan of British movies. UK does not make many films - at least not like the Hollywood machine. They make just a few, and out of those few, only one or two make it across the border, and when they do - they impress the hell out of international audience... The Trip is a road-movie that combines some of the best elements of the British cinema - great...

 People who choose to either miss movie trailers and/or do not pay attention to them before a movie they came to see starts, miss a lot. I can't stress enough of how important it is to watch the trailers to see what's coming next in your neighborhood. Most often we miss trailers on TV. Most often we don't read the movie ads in print press. Most often we tune out of a radio film ad...Movie trailers in movie theaters - are most often the only times we can actually see what's coming out. Even more - we can feel the reaction of the crowd in the theater to estimate if a movie would be 'liked' or 'not liked' by the crowd. Moreover, if you are like me - a sucker for foreign, independent and art-house films, there are 99% chance that the only way you'd find out about a new foreign film - is through the movie trailers at a theater. Unfortunately, due to the Hollywood's overproduction of the films, there are not many films that are making it to USA f...

Frances Ford Coppola might be the one who introduced The Godfather to the world, but it was Serge Eisenstein who invented "methods of montage" and up-close shots of "shooting in the eye through glasses" and "a child carrier strolling down the stairs" he used in his The Battleship Potemkin, later recreated by Coppola. Battleship Potempkin - Odessa Steps scene (Einsenstein 1925) - a scene that was many times replicated in great American films: Francis Ford Coppola talks about stealing art:

Not a day goes by that I don't see a movie. I grew up using a word "film" as a reference to the movie, but having lived in the USA for the last 25 years, I got used to using the world "movie". But where did it all started? Why a word movie is used more than a word film ? Is it because a movie is referring to the moving images? Or is it referring to moving emotions?... Wouldn't you, though, agree that a word film sounds more sophisticated than the other word? Is this why a self respected film critic would tell you he/she does film reviews rather than movie reviews? On the other hand, you more often here "let's do"  movie nights  than film nights . Isn't it peculiarly interesting how the words that mean the same thing don't mean the same attitude and/or describe the same activity? I'm a movie lover. That's my point. I don't even need someone to go with me to the movies to really enjoy it. Moreover, I sometimes prefer to...