CINEMANIA:

Frank (USA, 2014, Lenny Abrahamson)

Ben Livant:

To be frank, I do not think much of Frank.  Honestly, do we really require a whole movie starring the advertising mascot for the Jack In The Box burger chain?  But seriously, are we supposed to take Frank seriously?  I have to ask because the movie moves from act one bathos to act two pathos without coherence.  I believe the creators of this work themselves cannot see whatever meal they mean to serve because they fish for fowl and then foul the fish.

The story goes from being an outlandishly absurdist ridicule of a collective bohemian creative process to a public service announcement about the socially responsible treatment of mental illness.

The Theory of Everything (UK, 2014, James Marsh)

Ben Livant:

I am not a huge fan of bio-pics, preferring instead a documentary.  I am particularly suspicious of bio-pics about people who are still alive... on whose memoir the movie is based... whom the makers of the movie regularly consulted in person for guidance.

Get on Up (USA, 2014, Tate Taylor)

Ben Livant:

Having gotten it up to review The Theory of Everything, I am now getting it up to review Get On Up.  My treatment of TTOE was quite mean-spirited.  I neglected to mention that Eddie Redmayne's performance as Stephen Hawking is very, very good and Felicity Jones' performance as Jane Wilde Hawking is very good.

Olive Kitteridge (USA, 2014, Lisa Cholodenko)

Ben Livant:

After I watched the first part of this four-part program, I was impressed by how unsympathetic I found the title character.  I had to wonder if the protagonist was going to be some sort of anti-hero; not exactly a bad guy to root against, but a person just too unpleasant to like.  By the time part two was done, I had warmed up to her much more.  Still a handful to tolerate, her complexity nevertheless now included endearing qualities.

The Firemen's Ball (Czechoslovakia, 1967, Milos Forman)

Ben Livant:

Sometimes teachers for whom I substitute provide me with passwords so I can access their files.  I am presently covering for a teacher whose political point of view I have always respected.  The better part of this teacher's password is "May 1968."  Right on!Plus, my 18 year-old kid just flew to Paris a couple days ago.

Wild (USA, 2014,Jean-Marc Vallée  )

Ben Livant:

For a story supposedly about being out in the world, the wild world at that, Wild pays very little attention to the great outdoors.  The natural environment is merely instrumental to the personal journey taken by the protagonist to find herself.

It would be easy to criticize this instrumentality for failing to be, or even worse, for preventing environmentalism.  Such a critique might run as follows.

Alan Partridge (2013, UK, Declan Lowney)

Ben Livant: 

I dunno.  I laughed a few times.  What more should be expected?

It's like so many of these movies that are feature-length treatments of what originated as a television sketch or a radio skit or a stand-up bit or whatever short thing now made long.  Anyone intimate with the original will probably enjoy the movie, although bigger is not always better.

Ida (2014, UK-Poland, Pawil Pawlikowski)

Ben Livant:

More often than not when a thing is described as icy, the description is meant to show how cold the thing is.  But as will be recalled during the Spring thaw, ice is not only cold.  It is also dry.  Ida is icy.  Very icy.  Dry as only ice can be.  Not the absence of water.  The arrested state of it.  Not an emotional desert, parched of passion.  So much wet feeling frozen in place.

Nightcrawler (USA, 2014, Dan Gilroy)

Dan Jardine:

If you want a telling and prophetic portrait of a 21st century successful businessman, you could do far worse than study the story of Nightcrawler’s Louis Bloom. Lou (Jake Gyllenhaal) is one creepy cat. With generic Dale Carnegie New Age-isms dripping off his lips, and a forced smile ever at the ready, Lou is constantly on the lookout for something, anything that will give him an edge to wedge his way to success.

Force of Evil (USA, 1948,  Abraham Polonsky)

Force of Evil helped define many of the elements of the post-war film noir. 

The film has developed a strong cult following as much for its influential stylistic touches (such as using shades of black, white, and gray to play on themes of good, evil, and the shades in-between) as for its gorgeously shaded cinematography, adapted from 1920s German Expressionist films.