Mighty Aphrodite (6/10): A lesser Woody Allen film.

“Of all human weaknesses, obsession is the most dangerous, and the silliest!”

When you direct and write a film every year you can’t expect to always deliver a masterpiece, and that is the case with Woody Allen’s Mighty Aphrodite. It’s a delightful and enjoyable film, but it doesn’t seem to add up to much. When you compare it to his extensive filmography it wouldn’t even land in the top half of his best work because it’s far from being memorable. He’s directed so many movies that several of them feel incredibly familiar and for that reason they are easy to forget. He repeats several of the same themes throughout his movies and Mighty Aphrodite isn’t the exception, especially putting a lot of emphasis on love and infidelity which are recurring themes in Allen’s films. At times his films stand out for simply capturing these human emotions in a new way, and at others they do thanks to a particularly strong performance. In this case it was Mira Sorvino’s supportive performance as Linda Ash that garnered all the attention playing a hooker who isn’t all that right in the head. The way she delivered her lines with her high-pitched voice contributed to the overall comedy of her character. If there is one thing that I will remember from this forgettable Allen film it’s her Oscar winning performance. Despite her solid performance this is still one of the weakest Woody Allen movies I’ve seen.

In Mighty Aphrodite Woody Allen plays Lenny, a sportswriter, who is married to Amanda (Helena Bonham Carter). In order to spark some life into their monotonous relationship they decide to adopt a son who they name Max. After several years Lenny is surprised to discover that Max is such a brilliant kid and so he decides to search for his biological parents convinced that they must have great genes. He visits the adoption agency and is denied the files, but his curiosity gets the best of him and he finds a way to steal them. He tracks down the biological mother only to discover that she is a prostitute who is now going by the name of Linda Ash (Mira Sorvino). Lenny sets up an appointment with her and is disappointed that she ended up being so dumb. Concerned with her lifestyle, Lenny tries to help Linda by reforming her and setting her up with some respectable man. Meanwhile, Lenny and Amanda are going through some marital problems of their own. The narrative is linked with a bizarre Greek chorus (led by F. Murray Abraham) that compares Lenny’s story with the Greek tragedy Oedipus.

Allen always delivers some witty dialogues and funny situations in his films which make them such an entertaining ride. Mighty Aphrodite has a few moments like this that work well, but as a whole it is a very forgettable movie. Allen plays once again a sort of neurotic character who is fascinated with discovering who his adopted son’s mother really is. Sorvino’s performance is brilliant and elevates the material, but there isn’t more to it. Neither Allen nor Bonham Carter seem to stand out and their relationship isn’t central to the film. The Greek chorus was far from interesting and only took away from the story by trying to hard to compare the modern tale with the Greek one. It’s a light and corny film that is saved by Sorvino’s presence and Allen’s distinctive style of humor.       

My Review: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (7/10)

"Let's go catch a spider."

Marc Webb's first feature film, 500 Days of Summer, was a successful small indie romantic film with a lot of heart. He went from that to the huge production of the Spider-Man franchise which I thought didn't necessarily need a reboot so soon. However the film did work thanks to Andrew Garfield's portrayal of Peter Parker. His natural charisma and confidence translated really well to the character and his sense of humor makes him the perfect candidate to play Spier-Man. I began my review by mentioning that Webb directed 500 Days of Summer because for me the heart and soul of this film is the love story between Gwen and Peter. I can't think of any other superhero film with such a great love story and believable chemistry than this one. Garfield and Emma Stone are incredible together and I loved their scenes. Webb knows a thing or two about young romance and it is the film's strongest asset. The sequel is entertaining and has some great action scenes, but I could've watched this film for the romance alone. The flaws are actually the villains in this film. They don't crowd the film like the trailers led me to believe, but they really don't seem to menacing until we reach the final third act. For a film that runs at 140 minutes it went by really quick and that is always a good sign. Spider-Man 2 might not be as good as this year's Captain America, but it does have its solid moments and clever one-liners. At times the CGI took me out of the film as it looked more like a video game, but there were some interesting shots as we got to follow Spider-Man swing across the New York City landscape. The film works better as a romantic comedy than an actual superhero movie but that was fine with me because it was a really good one. It makes most other recent rom-coms look ridiculous and unbelievable.

After a short flashback where we see what happened with Peter's parents, the camera follows Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) swinging across NYC  as he tries to stop a Russian mob criminal, Aleksei Sytsevich (Paul Giamatti), who has stolen something from OsCorp. In the midst of all the action he receives a call from his girlfriend, Gwen (Emma Stone), who is reminding him that he's going to be late for their graduation. Somehow Spider-Man manages to take care of business and arrives in the nick of time to receive his degree as Peter Parker. His Aunt May (Sally Field) is the only family he has left, but she's there for him like she's always been. Peter however has been having visions of Gwen's father reminding him of the promise he made to not date his daughter in order to keep her out of danger. Apparently it has been a conflict they've dealt with over the last few months and Gwen decides it's time for the two to break up. Gwen continues to work at OsCorp which is now managed by Norman's son, Harry (Dane DeHaan), after his passing. Harry seems to suffer from the same degenerative disease of his father and wants to continue researching for a cure in OsCorp. Peter is glad to see his childhood friend back, but when he realizes what he's up to things get complicated. When an employee from OsCorp suffers a freak accident he becomes Electro (Jamie Foxx), a dangerous foe for Spider-Man and the city.

The Amazing Spider-Man has some flaws but it still entertains thanks to the great chemistry between Stone and Garfield. They are perfect together. DeHaan is also great as Harry and he does look like a believable threat for Spider-Man. I had a problem with Foxx's clumsy performance as Max but once he becomes Electro he does look menacing. I didn't care too much about the villains or the action set pieces despite the fact that they were well crafted. The inner struggles that Peter Parker faces with his family drama and relationship with Gwen is at the heart of this film. The final act is more than just a gigantic action face-off, there is actually a lot of emotional elements at stake and that is what lifted this movie as it finished on a high note. There was a very emotional scene scene near the end of the film that left the entire theater in silence. The best thing about this sequel is that it was much more emotionally involving than the original and it banks its strength from Andrew Garfield's charismatic and spot on performance as Peter Parker.

My Review: American Splendor (7/10)

"If you're the kind of person looking for romance or escapism or some fantasy figure to save the day... guess what? You've got the wrong movie."

From the very opening scene co-directors, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, present us with a rather unconventional film by blending a feature narrative with documentary style footage. Through voice over narration, Harvey Pekar, introduces his character played by Paul Giamatti as an ordinary man living a complex and depressing life. So while this biopic follows a traditional narrative style, it also interrupts it by showing documentary footage of the real people being portrayed in the film explaining the events that took place. The film also includes animation throughout the narrative from Pekar's underground comics, so from the opening credits the audience is introduced to a very different, but clever biopic. Paul Giamatti gives one of his best performances to date and I was glad to finally see him play a lead role. If you are a fan of his work, than by no means will you want to miss this film because his portrayal of Harvey Pekar is perfectly captured in a very natural way. There is nothing ordinary about the character Paul plays, Harvey has a very depressive and unique view on life, and the way he portrays the normal events of his life are told in a sour but hilarious way. Harvey's story alone is worth knowing, but the way the film combines the different styles in this movie make it stand above other traditional biopics.

The film tells the true story of Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti), an ordinary man living in Cleveland and working as a filing clerk in a VA hospital. He seems to get through each depressing day thanks to his enthusiasm for music and comic books, which he collects. One day while searching for LPs at a garage sale, he meets Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak). They become friends through their passion for jazz music and comics, and eventually Crumb becomes a famous comic book author. This inspires Harvey to begin writing about his ordinary life, and through his unique and dark sense of humor he eventually begins to have some underground success. American Splendor is the title he gives to his autobiographical graphic novels which narrate the common events that take place in his life. In his work he often includes his interesting co-workers: the autistic Toby Radloff (Judah Friedlander), and the veteran Mr. Boats (Earl Billings), with whom he shares hilarious interactions. Thanks to the success of his comic he also gets to meet his future third wife, Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis), and their depressing relationship also becomes an important part of his work. These interactions about the working class and Pekar's way of telling them are the heart of this biopic.

In a way American Splendor's sense of humor reminds me a lot of Seinfeld, although Pekar's vision of life is far more depressing. The blending of documentary footage and narrative feature works thanks to Giamatti's spot on performance. Having the real Harvey Pekar and the actor portraying him in the same film could have been a disaster, but Giamatti captures his mannerisms so well that it works and takes this character study to a higher level. I also thought the secondary characters in this film were all very interesting. They were all so quirky and different, but their interactions with Harvey made for some funny material. One of the scenes that stood out for me was the scene where Harvey and Toby are criticizing The Revenge of the Nerds movie. American Splendor is a very innovative and odd film and one worth checking out despite lacking some better pacing at times. Still it stands out by combining fact with fiction in a very creative and funny way.

My Review: 12 Years a Slave (9/10)

"I will not fall into despair till freedom is opportune!"

Steve McQueen is a brilliant filmmaker who makes movies that are sometimes difficult to watch, but at the same time are powerful and engaging. His characters usually are troubled souls who experience some sort of physical, psychological, or emotional torture. They are slaves of their circumstances, and no character literally captures these elements as well as Ejiofor's Solomon Northup as he is chained and sold into slavery. Some people claim that films about slavery and the Holocaust are overdone and exploitive, but I disagree, if made right they can be powerful and sensitive like was the case with 12 Years a Slave. The same people that make these claims are the ones that don't mind going to see five or six superhero or vampire films a year. There are good superhero movies and terrible ones, and it's the same thing with films dealing with these dark historic moments. This film isn't just a movie about slavery, it's a movie focusing on Solomon's story, it's a character study focused on an exceptional man who is determined not to lose hope or fall into despair. I'd even go as far as saying that more than a film about slavery, this is a dramatic and thrilling movie about the lack of human compassion. There are several villains in this film and they aren't only the slave masters, we see several scenes were even slaves turned their backs on each other, and that lack of compassion is what truly captured the essence of this film.

This beautiful screenplay adapted by John Ridley from Solomon Northup's autobiographical book, Twelve Years a Slave, tells the story of Solomon (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free man and New York citizen who was kidnapped, sold into slavery, and forced to work in several New Orleans plantations during the mid 1800's. This is where Solomon's fight for survival begins as he is determined to regain his freedom and return to his wife, Anne (Kelsey Scott) and two children. Once Solomon is sent to New Orleans he is sold by Freeman (Paul Giamatti) to a wealthy slave owner named Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). Ford is a kind Christian, but ultimately he really wants to look out for himself and when Solomon has trouble with one of the overseers, Tibeats (Paul Dano), he sells him to a ruthless slave owner named Epps (Michael Fassbender). This is where Solomon's soul is really put to the test as Epps cruelty is unbearable. However, Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o) suffers the most from her Master's cruelty as she is raped and despised by Epp's Mistress (Sarah Paulson). We follow Solomon through these tormented 12 years as he experiences all sorts of horrors until he finally finds a compassionate heart.

This superb film benefits from a powerful lead performance from Chiwetel Ejiofor who deserves all the awards he's been receiving. His facial expressions and agony transcend the screen and break our hearts. The same could be said from the supporting performances from Paul Dano, Benedict Cumberbatch (who plays the more complex character and probably the only one that isn't either white or black morally), and Michael Fassbender who is the personification of cruelty. Fassbender, who was also brilliant in McQueen's two previous films, plays one of the most despicable characters in recent film history. McQueen's direction is outstanding and several of his scenes were beautifully shot while at the same time very disturbing. His trademark long takes stand out in this film. The whipping scene is horrifying and the long shot where he is tortured and left hanging while we see everyone else going on with their normal lives is a testament of the central theme of this film which had to do with the lack of human compassion and mercy. This is one of the best films of the year and completely deserves all the hype it's been receiving.

My Review: Saving Mr. Banks (9/10)

"Winds in the east...Mist coming in...Like something is brewing...About to begin...Can't put me finger...On what lies in store...But I feel what's to happen...All happened before."

This was one of the few charming and sentimental films I fell for this year and a great deal has to do with the nostalgic effect that Mary Poppins has on me from my childhood. Yes it is schmaltzy at times and has a manipulative feel good vibe to it while at the same time self promoting itself, but I still was emotionally won over by this great story (and I don't care if most of it was made up, I still loved the film, I don't watch movies for facts). Saving Mr. Banks is smart and upbeat and will have you humming some of the songs from the beloved classic long after the credits have rolled. This is the best marketing Disney has come up with to promote Mary Poppins, and a lot of the success is owed to Emma Thompson for delivering such a powerful performance. Her character could be easily disliked for being so severe and unpleasant to others, but Thompson redeems her by allowing us to see where her pain comes from and how much the novel really meant to her. Tom Hanks is also great as Walt Disney and he would've received more recognition for this film if it weren't for those brilliant last 5 minutes in Captain Phillips that stole all the thunder from his performance here. Supporting roles from Colin Farrell, Paul Giamatti, and Jason Schwartzman make this an even more powerful film. Credit also must be given to the screenwriters, Kelly Marcel and Sue Smith, who managed to deliver a charming story while including engaging flashbacks of Travers' past. 

Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) promised his daughters that he would bring the beloved Mary Poppins novel to the big screen, but it turned out to be a difficult task considering he has spent the last 20 years trying to convince P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson) to obtain the rights of her novel. Convinced that Disney will ruin her beloved book, she refuses to do so. Travers' agent convinces her to travel to California to meet with Disney and try to come up with an agreement considering she is running out of money. Travers spends the next two weeks working with screenwriters (the Sherman brothers played by Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak) at Disney's facility making sure that the screenplay is written exactly how she wants it. Things get complicated as she refuses to compromise to basic things Disney wants to include in the film. The film also presents flashbacks of Travers' childhood growing up in Australia with her father (Colin Farrell) who she absolutely adored but had a drinking problem that eventually ruined him. Her childhood experiences shaped the book and that is why she is so reluctant to let someone else change her story.

Sandra Bullock won an Oscar for The Blind Side which was John Lee Hancock's prior film to this one and Emma Thompson might be a front runner to win for her performance as Travers. She makes this film much better than it actually is because if it wasn't for her Saving Mr. Banks would just be Disney schmaltz. I found it extremely hard not feel emotional about this film and it engaged me completely despite the lack of interest I had for the subject matter. I loved Mary Poppins as a kid, but that didn't mean I was interested in seeing a movie on how it was made. Despite all I've said about it being self promoting and manipulative I thought that what worked best was the integration of the flashbacks that allowed us to understand where Travers was coming from and reminds us how sometimes art is connected personally to the artist's past. That is why perhaps a film speaks to us in different ways because we too as an audience bring in our personal past and integrate it into a film finding a connection that perhaps others never will. That is the beauty of art, it affects us all in different ways.

My Review: Parkland (7/10)

¨It's the first time that the secret service has lost a president under its watch.¨

I'm actually surprised I enjoyed this film so much considering the bad reviews it has been receiving and my lack of knowledge on the historical details about the assassination of John F Kennedy. There have been many films made about this specific event, but very few have taken this approach where you get to experience things through the eyes of secondary characters and people behind the scenes like the Parkland medical staff that had to attend the president, or Oswald's brother who is shocked to hear his brother has shot the president. The apparently small scaled moments of this tragic event (like how the medical staff decide to keep the president's boxers on during surgery to preserve his dignity, or the urgency with which the Secret Service agents were trying to get a film of the assassination developed, or how Robert Oswald reacts when he hears that his brother is the prime suspect of the murder) are what truly make this film gripping and unique. The film has its flaws such as failing to have narrative cohesion and the characters are underdeveloped at times, but I think it worked really well considering everything happened so fast and these people had to make split second decisions. The overall feeling of chaos and messiness of the events that took place really transcend here as everything happens so fast and the film is reduced to a length of merely 90 minutes. The film follows a semi documentary style that totally works because you can feel the tension and urgency with which they had to deal with during such a catastrophic event. Parkland is Peter Landesman's first feature film and somehow the movie touched me in a way that apparently hasn't touched most audiences or critics. I didn't expect to like this film as much as I did, but I really felt engaged from the very opening scenes up to the very end. It doesn't offer new insight to a popular historical event, but it does tell the story differently. As we approach the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's death this might be a movie worth checking out (just don't go into it thinking you are going to get another Oliver Stone JFK). The film's strongest strength relies on this sense of urgency and how it depicts the events in real time as everyone had to make life changing decisions in a matter of seconds. But it also seems to be its weakness as many consider it to be a little too over the place and chaotic with little cohesiveness.

The film follows the tragic events that occurred in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 involving the assassination of President John F Kennedy. The story focuses on the perspective of the people in the sidelines that witnessed the event first hand like the medical staff in Parkland Hospital that were there that tragic day. Young Doctor Jim Carrico (Zac Efron) was the resident doctor that day in Parkland, and some of the nurses that were there to assist him were Nurse Doris (Marcia Gay Harden) and the emergency room nurse played by Mallory Moye. We get another perspective of that day through the eyes of a small businessman named Abraham Zapruder (Paul Giamatti), who happened to capture the assassination on his Super 8 camera. We also see things through the eyes of Dallas's chief of the Secret Service, Forrest Sorrels (Billy Bob Thornton), an FBI agent named James Hosty (Ron Livingston) who was investigating Lee Harvey Oswald (Jeremy Strong), and Lee Harvey's brother Robert (James Badge Dale) and mother (Jacki Weaver) who react differently to the news about the murder. All these different perspectives are weaved together giving us an engaging film and different insight into what was going on. Tom Welling, Mark Duplass, Colin Hanks, Jackie Earle Haley, and Kat Steffens all play secondary characters in this star studded cast. 

There were some strong performances in this film although not really Oscar worthy. I specially liked James Badge Dale in this film who gives a quiet but brave performance, while Paul Giamatti rings true with his emotional performance as he has to deal with the pain of viewing the horrific event he captured on camera. The rest of the cast didn't really stand out considering they all had very little screen time, but it was good to see some of these talented actors working together. Jacki Weaver is a talented actress and she proves it once again in this small role. The cast is solid and the script is also pretty engaging. I was glad everything was depicted so fast and that the film didn't run too long.

My Review: Rock of Ages (4/10)

¨This place is about to become a sea of sweat, ear-shattering music and puke.¨

Filmmaker Adam Shankman just succeeded in bringing to the big screen one of the worst movies of the year. It`s a shame because I had enjoyed his 2008 musical Hairspray, but this one doesn’t work at all. It tries too hard to be funny, but it just felt lame. The first 30 minutes are terrible, the film then picks up thanks to Tom Cruise but it just seemed to drag on forever. The movie may have one of the best soundtracks of the year and that saves it, but that is about the only thing I enjoyed of Rock of Ages. There are a couple few funny scenes but they are too far spread out and like one of the character`s sings near the end ¨the movie keeps on going on and on.¨ I didn’t like that the producers decided to put the words of the song during the musical like if it were a karaoke bar, but I guess a lot of people liked it and it worked for them. I`m just giving my personal opinion and I didn’t think it worked really well as a movie. There were a lot of similarities between this movie and Burlesque, another film I didn’t like very much but is much better than this one. Musicals haven’t worked out really well in the past few years (Burlesque and Nine), and it`s a shame because with films like Chicago, Moulin Rouge, and Dreamgirls it looked like this genre was going through a revival period.

Sherrie (Julianne Hough from the Footloose remake) is a small town girl from Tulsa, Oklahoma that is pursuing her dream of becoming a singer and therefore is moving to Hollywood. Once she arrives to the big city she is introduced to a new world and from the moment she sets her foot in Hollywood she is robbed. But not everyone is a thief in Hollywood and she finds help from a young man who`s also aspiring to become a rock star. His name is Drew (Diego Boneta) and he immediately helps Sherrie by helping her get a job at the same place he works at: the Bourbon Club, famous for having launched Stacee Jaxx`s (Tom Cruise) career as a rock star. Jaxx is at the pinnacle of his career and is thinking of going solo. He will be presenting his last concert with his band at the Bourbon Club run by Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin). The club is having some financial troubles, but the concert will put it in the map again. Not everyone admires Stacee Jaxx however, as the mayor (Brian Cranston) and his wife Patty Whitmore (Catherine Zeta Jones) want to clean the city by closing down the famous club responsible for so much immorality. Other important characters in this musical include the talents of Paul Giamatti as Jaxx`s manager, Russell Brand as Dennis`s best friend and work partner, Mary J Blige as a strip club owner, and Malin Akerman as a Rolling Stones magazine reporter.

There is not much more I can add about this review but say that Tom Cruise gave yet another good performance. I also liked the young Diego Boneta who I hadn’t heard about before. He has a decent career ahead of him. Alec Baldwin and Russell Brand are always funny and shared some funny moments together. Julianne Hough is beautiful but she didn’t seem to fit the part in this film. I didn’t like her very much in Rock of Ages. My main complaint has nothing to do with the cast, I just think it was poorly directed and scripted. The film has some great music, but that is about it. I wouldn’t want to watch this film again and couldn’t recommend it to anyone.

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My Review: Win Win (9/10)

¨I wanna go to Ohio and beat the crap out of his mom. ¨

Thomas McCarthy has once again directed a successful family drama (slash comedy, slash sport film) that will be remembered for its heartwarming characters. McCarthy has a tendency for writing and directing these kind of movies with memorable, yet ordinary characters who aren`t perfect, but have something special about them in some way or another. He did it in his previous films with The Station Agent and The Visitors where we have very silent characters with flaws, but who discover something good about themselves through the new and unconventional relations they make. I would say that the heart of his films don’t rely so much on the characters that he introduces, but in the interactions between them, and that is why the story and characters flourish in his stories. Win Win is no exception and perhaps this is an even improved film over its predecessors because we have much more different interactions between the characters, and you can even include the sport element that makes this movie all that more attractive. Of course McCarthy can`t make a good film if he doesn’t have a good cast because the heart of his films revolve around these characters and how they interact with each other. In Win Win he has just that: an excellent cast, beginning with a superb leading performance from Paul Giamatti, and a great supporting cast which include the always reliable Amy Ryan, Jeffrey Tambor, Bobby Cannavale, Melanie Lynskey, and Burt Young, plus a memorable performance from newcomer Alex Shaffer who is the heart and motor of the story. I really didn’t get that much into the story until he showed up, and he really changes the pace and momentum of the movie once his character is introduced some fifteen minutes into the film. The mystery about his past and the way he interacts with Giamatti and Ryan are the soul of this drama, while Cannavale and Tambor`s performance work more as the comedic relief.

Mike Flaherty (Paul Giamatti) is a lawyer and father of two young daughters living with his wife Jackie (Amy Ryan) in a New Jersey suberb. Mike is trying to survive in his private practice, but has been experiencing some financial difficulties which have been putting him through some anxiety attacks. He also works as a High School wrestling coach during his free time since he once used to be a decent wrestler himself. He trains the kids along with his assistant Stephen (Jeffrey Tambor), who also shares an office with him in his practice. Due to his attacks the doctor has recommended Mike to run every morning so he does so alone or along his longtime high school buddy Terry (Bobby Cannavale). An opportunity presents itself for Mike to make easy money with a client of his named Leo (Burt Young). Leo is old and suffering from dementia, but since his daughter can`t be reached he is on his own and the State is worried about his wellbeing. Leo has plenty of money, but doesn’t have anyone to take care of him, so Mike decides to become his legal guardian. He does it for the money since the guardian will receive 1500 dollars a month, but sends him to a house care facility once he becomes the guardian. One day an unexpected visitor shows up at Leo`s house: his grandson, Kyle (Alex Shaffer) and Mike takes him to visit his grandfather. Kyle is a quiet kid who has run away from his home. Mike and Jackie take the kid in for a few days and they discover he has a great talent: he is a wrestler, so Mike signs him up with his team and believes he has received a double blessing with this whole Leo situation. The problem ensues when Kyle`s mother shows up in town and Mike`s past begins to haunt him.

I warn you don’t give up on this movie due to its very slow start because it`s worth the wait. The movie really doesn’t reach full gear until about twenty minutes into the film when Kyle shows up. McCarthy`s films tend to suffer from this slow opening because it takes time to set up the characters in the way he does. These characters are all really well developed and not even the secondary characters are one dimensional so it does take some time to set up the characters and situations, but once that is dealt with and we begin seeing these characters interact with each other the movie does pay off and pick off in an extraordinary fashion. Who would`ve thought wrestling could be so interesting? McCarthy really makes it so, but does it by leaving it as a side plot and not focusing entirely on the sport. The relationship between Giamatti and Shaffer are essentially the heart of this story and winning or losing becomes something secondary like it is in real life. It`s this inner conflict that Giamatti has to deal with and the way he relates and begins to identify with the boy that make this such a fascinating and heartwarming film. McCarthy never tries to play with our emotions, and every single scene feels authentic and real. We are dealing with real characters, who aren`t perfect and perhaps may have done some stupid or unethical things, but they try to search for some sort of redemption in order to find forgiveness. This is truly one of McCarthy`s best films to date and a wonderful small movie you will want to see.  

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My Review: The Ides of March (9/10)

¨There is only one thing I value in this world and that`s loyalty; without it you`re nothing! ¨

This is the third 2011 film starring Ryan Gosling and I must say he does a great job at choosing his roles because all his movies this year were really great. He also has done very diverse roles, and this time he plays an idealistic media consultant for a presidential candidate who he admires (played by George Clooney). This is a political film that teaches us how the campaign trail works, but it also has very intense and surprising moments. I`m not a fan of political movies, but the actors and the story make Ides of March a really interesting and entertaining film. It does get the message across of how dirty politics can sometime corrupt even the most idealistic and well intentioned people. Ides of March does this very well, and it couldn`t be any other way considering George Clooney directed this piece and also contributed with the adaptation of the screenplay. The last time Clooney worked on a screenplay was in 2005 when he directed the six time Oscar nominated film Good Night and Good Luck. He did a terrific job once again with the script although he had some help from Beau Willimon who actually wrote the play in which this film is loosely based, ¨Farragut Night.¨ The performances in this film are also great. You can`t go wrong when you have the talents of George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, and Marisa Tomei. This is an all star cast and the movie would be worth watching for the performances alone, but the script is also pretty strong so this is one of the films you won`t want to miss this year.

Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is working in the democratic nomination campaign for presidential candidate Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) as his media consultant. Stephen is young, but very experienced and is the best at his position. Stephen`s boss is Paul Zara (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) who also is his personal mentor and the campaign manager. They are currently in the Ohio primaries where the race is tight between Morris and his other democratic rival, Senator Pullman (Michael Mantell). Pullman also has a very smart campaign manager who is doing his best to keep him in the fight: Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti). Duffy doesn`t always fight clean, he is experienced and knows how dirty politics works. Paul Zara believes the key to winning resides in the endorsement from Senator Thompson (Jeffrey Wright), but Pullman`s people have made him a very tempting offer which Governor Mike Morris is not willing to counter offer. Morris is idealistic and doesn`t want to buy his way into the Presidential office by making offers to senators with whom he doesn`t agree. This is one of the things that Meyers admires about Morris: his honesty and integrity. During the campaign trail Meyers has a relationship with an intern, Molly (Evan Rachel Wood), and soon realizes that not everything is what it seems. There is a twist that I don`t want to give away here, but the movie then takes an unexpected turn. This is where the emotion begins and the movie picks up from here.

Ides of March may start off slow, but it`s just a delight to see these actors work together with a decent story. I wasn`t disappointed one bit, and even though I am not into politics I found myself drawn by the story. I couldn`t predict what was going to happen either since the movie takes some interesting turns involving deceptions and dirty politics. Even the most idealistic people can be corrupted by the political game and the movie makes its point. Ides of March is really worth seeing, even if you`re not into politics, because the story is engaging, the performances are great, and George Clooney never disappoints as a director. Paul Giamatti and Phillip Seymour Hoffman are always at their best, and these kinds of roles are where they excel. Ryan Gosling has had one of the best years of his life career wise: Crazy, Stupid Love, Drive, and now Ides of March; they`re all great films and Gosling gives strong performances in each. My favorite film this year so far is Drive, and his performance is just captivating in that movie. Ides of March is a movie you have to see, you won`t regret it.

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